Laszlo was charged with disorderly conduct for kicking several of the fleeing refugees as well as tripping a man who was carrying a child.
The incidents happened as Laszlo was filming the police trying to keep refugees from crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border on September 8, 2015.
Many people were outraged at Lazlo’s actions which caused the man she tripped to fall on top of the child he was carrying.
At the time Laszlo was working as a journalist for N1TV, a Hungarian television station said to be closely affiliated with Hungary’s far-right neo Nazi Jobbik Party known for its anti-refugee rhetoric.
Nevertheless, the station found Laszlo’s conduct to be morally indefensible and fired her shortly after it happened.
Laszlo had attempted to defend her actions in court by saying that she was only acting in self-defense and requested a dismissal of the charges leveled against her.
Taking into consideration that the crime she had committed had caused a great deal of public outrage, as well as the fact that there was no evidence to support her defense of it, the judge denied Laszlo’s request to dismiss the charges against her.
Laszlo, whose lawyer claims she is in hiding because she has received death threats, mounted a tearful defense via remote video at the hearing in the Szeged District Court on Thursday.
Presiding Judge Illes Nanasi said her behavior "ran counter to societal norms" and that the facts of the case did not support her claims of self-defense. Laszlo has nevertheless appealed the ruling.
The incident occurred near the border town of Roszke where Laszlo had gone to film refugees from the Middle East who were trying to pass through Hungary on their way west through Europe.
While she was filming, several desperate refugees broke through a police cordon jostling her as they shot by.
"It was all over within two seconds. Everybody was shouting. It was very frightening," Laszlo had said in her own defense.
But video footage taken by other journalists at the scene clearly show her delivering roundhouse-style kicks to two people as they fled, including a young girl, as well extending her leg to trip an older man carrying a child in a manner that looked to be very deliberate and not motivated at all by fear.
The court reached its verdict after viewing the footage of Laszlo’s actions during the fracas frame-by-frame.
Some of her strongest critics at the time of the incident were other journalists who accused her of being anti-refugee and of having no empathy in a profession where objectivity and impartiality are crucial to providing accurate reporting and maintaining one’s integrity
Laszlo’s actions were also viewed as particularly heinous by Syrians who have been fighting to maintain their dignity since the revolution began in March of 2011.
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