Dr. Lajos Korona

School Blog number 6

            Last Wednesday the JSBP crew and I got the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Lajos Korona, a highly esteemed lawyer in Budapest’s metropolitan public prosecutor’s office. Korona was a really nice guy, and was rocking a pretty sweet suit if I must say so myself. He gave us some excellent insights on the Hungarian legal system, crime trends in Budapest, as well as his job as a public prosecutor in particular.

The branch of the public prosecutor’s office that Lajos works for is in charge of the supervision of police investigations. Korona spends almost no time working in the courtroom, but his job is extremely important nonetheless. It can be argued that the most significant aspect of any successful criminal lawsuit lies within the police’s investigation of the specific occurrences of the case. Without the proper police work (ie. evidence collection, witness questioning) it is impossible to decide whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. Korona is in charge of overseeing the procedures of an investigation with the goal of making sure that there have been no illegalities committed by the state in its attempt to convict a criminal. Korona’s work is paramount to the success and transparency of any democratic legal process. He and his colleagues are involved in keeping the police accountable for their work, and assuring that they maintain honesty in their attempts to solve a crime. Without this key checkpoint in the Hungarian legal system there would be room for fraudulent investigative behavior, such as tampering with evidence or improperly investigating witnesses.

            Dr. Korona pointed out that there are very rarely any problems in the investigative work done by the rendorseg in Budapest. This could very well be due to the fact that his department is constantly overlooking each officer’s work to make sure that he or she is acting in a professional and honest manner throughout every criminal investigation. The many filters that are in place throughout Hungary’s criminal investigation process have been paramount in creating a fair and well-balanced legal system for all Magyars.

            Korona then went on to discuss the types of crime that are prevalent in modern day Budapest. He said that his department deals mostly with criminal investigations involving drug crimes, homicide, and high stakes property crime. Budapest is contaminated with these three categories of criminal activity, much like most major cities throughout the world. One form of crime that Korona discussed that I was not as familiar with, however, was human trafficking. In many cases, Hungarian women will be smuggled to various countries in Western Europe to become prostitutes. These girls are delivered to their future pimps though middlemen who participate in human trafficking for a living. Unfortunately, most of the Hungarian women who are delivered to places like the Netherlands and Sweden to be sold as prostitutes are doing so according to their own will, which makes this type of crime very hard to stop.

Women sold and bought

            A crime of this nature is shocking to me. The fact that many Hungarian women are willing to sell themselves in order to get to Western Europe is a truly scary thought. It is also a somewhat sad reflection of the desperate times that a large population of lower class Hungarians find themselves buried in. It was interesting to hear the perspective of someone who works within the Hungarian legal on such an issue. Korona seemed very sad about such a form of criminal behavior, but quite clearly affirmed that there wasn’t much to be done about it.
Some problems are too complex to be solved within the simple confines of a legal system. 

Keep it keeping my homies,

Love,

Mama’s Boy