BUDAPEST - Four Hungarian men were found guilty Tuesday of killing six Roma including a five-year-old child in a wave of racially-motivated attacks between 2008 and 2009.

Life sentences were handed down to Arpad Kiss, Istvan Kiss and Zsolt Peto, while a fourth defendant, Istvan Csontos, was given a 13-year prison sentence.

Over 14 months starting in July 2008, the men allegedly carried out nine assaults on Roma living in various villages in northeastern Hungary, using grenades, guns and Molotov cocktails.

Tuesday&39;s verdict ended a two-year trial into the assaults which stood out for their violence, even against a community that suffers from regular discrimination.

In one of the most gruesome attacks, a Roma father and his five-year-old son were gunned down as they tried to flee their house, which the group had set on fire.

In another incident, a woman was shot in her sleep.

In total, six people were killed and five injured in the year-long spree of violence.

Three of the accused -- brothers Arpad and Istvan Kiss and Zsolt Peto -- have denied carrying out the attacks and have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The fourth -- Istvan Csontos, who served as a driver to his accomplices -- has pleaded guilty to charges of collusion but insists he did not take part in the murders.

The case has found special resonance in a country where the Roma minority, plagued by poverty and high unemployment and often shunned by the rest of society, is regularly subjected to verbal and physical abuse.

Prosecutors say the four accused, all hard-core fans of Debrecen football club in northeastern Hungary with neo-Nazi tendencies, had had run-ins with Roma in the past.

The idea for the attacks emerged after they shared their stories in a pub, the prosecution said.

All four -- aged 28 to 42 at the time of the crimes -- have been in custody since their arrests in August 2009.

The Roma, which make up between five and eight percent of Hungary&39;s 10-million population, have also been targeted by the far-right Jobbik party and close allies of centre-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In January, Zsolt Bayer, a prominent journalist close to Orban, equated Roma to "animals" who "shouldn&39;t be tolerated" and "should not exist." His newspaper was later fined by the country&39;s media regulator.

Vigilantes too have tried to intimidate Roma communities on numerous occasions.

On Monday, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) warned that the court&39;s verdict would be crucial in determining how Hungary tackles racism in the future.

A clear judgement "would go a long way toward preventing similar crimes in the future," Eszter Jovanovics, head of the HCLU&39;s Roma Programme, said in a statement.

"If the court comes out with an unclear judgement, it would contribute to covering up racism in Hungary," she added, calling on the judge to "clearly state" that these were hate crimes.

"The perpetrators had no other grounds for choosing the victims other than the colour of their skin.

"The prejudice against Roma and the resulting crimes remain the most serious human rights issue in Hungary," Jovanovics said.

The Budapest District Court will convene at 0700 GMT to deliver its verdict, but this could take a few hours while details of the case are read out.

Since the start of the trial in March 2011, the court has heard testimony from more than 200 witnesses and 43 experts.

The verdict comes a few days after the anniversary of the last attack on August 2, 2009.