Petra László, who was filmed tripping up people fleeing police at the Hungarian border, is also considering legal action against Facebook

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A camera operator for a Hungarian nationalist television channel who was filmed kicking and tripping refugees has said she plans to sue one of them and Facebook.



Petra László apologised last month, saying “something snapped in me” when she kicked two refugee children and tripped up a man carrying a child at the border area of Röszke.

However, in an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, she has said she plans to take legal action against Facebook for allegedly refusing to remove threatening groups on the site and deleting groups that supported her.

László also said she plans to sue Osama Abdul Mohsen, one of the Syrian refugees she kicked, saying: “He changed his testimony because he initially blamed the police. My husband wants to prove my innocence. For him it is now a matter of honour.”

László was fired by N1TV after footage of the incident was posted on Twitter by Stephan Richter, a reporter for the German television channel RTL.

N1TV – which has links to the far-right Jobbik party – said László’s behaviour was unacceptable and her job had been terminated “with immediate effect”.

Last week, Hungarian prosecutors said a criminal case for breach of the peace had been opened against her.

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The incident happened as hundreds of people broke through a police line at Röszke,close to the Hungarian-Serbian border, where thousands of migrants and refugees have been crossing every day for the last month.

László also said she wanted to move her family to Russia because she felt unsafe in Hungary. She said: “We consider Russia and we think that we will begin to learn Russian. For us it is important to leave Hungary. We will decide after the trial.”

Meanwhile, Mohsen and his family are beginning a new life in the Spanish city of Getafe, near Madrid, after a Spanish football academy offered to help him rebuild his life and restart his career as a football coach.

The Syrian had been a coach for al-Fotuwa, a first-division football team in Deir Ezzor, before the civil war forced his family to flee their hometown.