A Budapest court on Thursday sentenced Tamás Gyárfás, the former head of Hungary’s swimming federation, to seven years in a maximum security prison and Tamás Portik, the one-time head of an oil company involved in illicit deals in the nineties, to life in prison for their involvement in the murder of Hungarian media mogul János Fenyő in 1998. Gyárfás, a media businessman, was found guilty of complicity to commit murder, while Portik was convicted of instigating the murder. The Budapest Municipal Court banned both defendants for ten years from participating in public affairs.
Judge Péter Póta said the earliest Gyárfás could be released on parole was after serving four-fifths of his sentence. Portik could be eligible for parole in 20 years’ time at the earliest, he added. According to the verdict, Gyárfás commissioned Portik and Péter Tasnádi, current convicts in connection with other cases, to kill Fenyő, his business rival. Portik hired Slovak criminal Jozef Roháč to carry out the murder, who then killed Fenyő on February 11, 1998.