Police arrested the former head of the Hungarian Swimming Association after questioning him on Tuesday in connection with the 1998 slaying of a business rival.
Authorities identified the man only as T. Gyarfas, saying he is suspected of ordering the killing of media mogul Janos Fenyo, who was fatally shot while his car was stopped at a Budapest traffic light.
Hungarian media named the suspect as 69-year-old Tamas Gyarfas, who led the swimming association from 1993 to 2006, while also holding top positions in European and international swimming organizations and the Hungarian Olympic Committee.
He was also a key media figure after Hungary’s return to democracy in 1990.
Fenyo, who worked for years as a press photographer, launched a successful chain of video rental stores shortly after returning in 1987 from a stay in the US.
ASSASSINATION
Later, he began building a media company that grew to include popular magazines and newspapers as well as a cable TV channel.
He had a well-known rivalry with Gyarfas, who was the producer and occasional interviewer of Napkelte (Sunrise), state television’s widely watched morning program.
In the late afternoon of Feb. 11, 1998, Fenyo was shot numerous times with a Croatian-made submachine gun, which later was recovered by police.
The assassination shocked the country and speculation about its motive immediately centered on Fenyo’s legal and allegedly illegal business dealings.
A Slovak man, Jozef Rohac, was sentenced to life in prison last year for Fenyo’s murder, but the person who hired the gunman had not previously been identified.
Police said that last month they met with a prison inmate identified only as T. Portik, who is currently serving a 13-year term for ordering an underworld killing, to question him about suspected involvement in Fenyo’s slaying.
Gyarfas resigned as head of Hungary’s swimming federation in November 2016, just months before the country hosted the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, the largest sporting event ever held in the country.
A campaign for his ouster was led by three-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu, who called him a “most harmful factor” for Hungarian swimming.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese