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Hungary Drops Case Over Nagy's Execution


16 June 2004 -- Hungarian authorities today said they have dropped a case against late Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Hungary's Communist Party boss Janos Kadar for their roles in the execution of former Prime Minister Imre Nagy.

In a decree carried by the state news agency MTI, Hungarian police said Khrushchev and Kadar were guilty of Nagy's deportation to Romania after Soviet tanks crushed the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. But they also said the case was dropped because both men were dead.

Nagy, a leader of the 1956 revolution, was executed on 16 June 1958, more than a year after his return from Romania. His reburial in Budapest 15 years ago coincided with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

At a ceremony marking the anniversary of Nagy's reburial held today in Budapest, Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy said Hungary must acknowledge the past to move on.

(Reuters)
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