Paris Prosecutor's Office willing to extradite antifa activist to Hungary, citing significant improvements in justice system after election

On Wednesday, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office proposed the extradition of a Syrian anti-fascist to Hungary. The man is accused of attacking individuals believed to be far-right extremists in Budapest in February 2023, resulting in serious injuries. The Investigative Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over extradition cases, will decide on November 25 whether to extradite Zaid Altayeb—who has been granted asylum in France—to Hungary, according to MTI, citing the AFP news agency.

“There are sufficient guarantees in place, allowing us to initiate the immediate extradition of Zaid Altayeb to Hungary,” the prosecutor said on Wednesday, according to AFP, during the final hearing on the European arrest warrant.

According to a representative of the French prosecution, the independence of the Hungarian judiciary has been strengthened in recent months.

Hungarian authorities are seeking the extradition of 23-year-old Syrian Zaid Altayeb because they want to hold him accountable for his role in the violent clashes that took place in Budapest in February 2023. Along with several accomplices who are also wanted by Hungarian authorities, he clashed with participants of the commemoration held on the so-called “Day of Honor” (an annual event organized by extreme far-right organizations, dedicated to commemorating the Nazi forces who broke out of Russian-encircled Budapest at the end of World War II).

The activist's attorney, Laurent Pasquet-Marinacce, disagreed with the prosecutor's position during the hearing. In his view, his client is a “meticulously constructed ideal criminal,” meaning that “the risk of an unfair trial still exists” in Hungary.

The attorney stated that he was in Budapest on 30 September, when the Budapest Court of Appeals handed down the final judgment in the Antifa case, in which the court reduced the sentence of the fourth defendant, Maja T. of Germany, from the eight-year prison term imposed at the first-instance trial to seven years. The attorney stated that he “witnessed an inhumane and humiliating scene in which Maja T.’s hands and feet were bound in very tight handcuffs.”

“A government change does not erase 15 years of damage done to everything that makes a country a constitutional state,” said the legal representative.

Zaid Altayeb, who is currently free, said, “All progress takes time, and prisoners will be the last to benefit from it; and I, as a Syrian, may be the last of the last.”

In the same case, in April 2025, the French judiciary rejected the extradition to Hungary of Rexhino Abazaj, a 32-year-old Albanian anti-fascist activist known by the nickname “Gino.” When announcing the decision, the president of the extradition division of the Paris Court of Appeals cited that in Hungary, there is “a risk” that the rights guaranteed by the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the prohibition of torture and the right to a fair trial would not be upheld, giving as examples “cruel treatment” in prison and the uncertainty of ensuring a fair trial.

After that, Germany also sought the Albanian man’s extradition for the same offenses as Hungary, and this request was approved by the appellate court on August 19 and subsequently upheld by the Court of Cassation on September 30.