"Since all legal recourse has been exhausted in Romania for the Hungarian Reformed Church and the three defendants, their only hope for fair decision rests in the European Court of Human Rights", the New York based Hungarian Human Rights Foundation states in its latest Alert in regard to the case of the Székely Mikó High School. The alert explains the situation of the church property restitution in Romania.
Since 1990, the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation has consistently monitored the status of 2,140 properties confiscated from the Roman Catholic, Hungarian Reformed, Lutheran and Unitarian Churches, the dominant religious affiliation of the 1.5 million-strong Hungarian minority in Romania. The New York-based Foundation regularly updates reports tracking Romanian legislation and implementation; testifies in Congress, and maintains a database on the status of all Hungarian-related properties.
"In a scandalous disregard for the rule of law, as well as religious and minority rights, on November 26, a Romanian appellate court re-nationalized a Hungarian denominational high school in Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfântu Gheorghe) built by the Hungarian Reformed Church in 1873 and confiscated in 1948 by the communist regime. Concurrently, the same Ploiesti Court of Appeals upheld three-year, suspended prison sentences for Attila Markó, Tamás Marosán and Silviu Clim for their 2002 lawful decision, in their official capacity as members of the Special Committee on Church Property Restitution, to restore this property to the aforementioned rightful owner." - reads in the Alert issued on 4th December on the website of the foundation.
Ecumenical Office
Source: hhrf.org