Hungary's chief justice defends Gypsies

BUDAPEST, Hungary, Dec. 12 Hungary's chief justice has asked lawmakers to work out more efficient laws to safeguard the dignity of the Gypsy, or Romany, community.

Zoltan Lomnici, president of the Hungarian Supreme Court in Budapest Wednesday denounced a recent march by a far-right paramilitary organization aimed at intimidating the Gypsy minority in the country, the Hungarian news agency MTI reported.

Lomnici, responding to a letter by Erno Kallai, the minority ombudsman, said any discrimination by race, religion or gender is unconstitutional and unacceptable.

Some 300 members of the neo-Nazi Hungarian Guard, sporting black dress and carrying red-and-white striped banners, in a hate showing move Sunday marched through a predominantly Gypsy village outside Budapest.

Kallai's letter appealed to politicians and public officials to take stand on the Sunday neo-Nazi march.

Lomnici reiterated Hungary needed amended laws that would easily cope with any actions displaying hatred and threats towards Gypsies and other national minorities.

He confirmed he had already sent proposals relating to his ideas to the parliament's constitutional and judicial committees.