September 26, 1957
TIBOR DERY: London – The Times reports that according to sources in Hungary, the Hungarian writer Tibor Dery, who was one of the intellectual leaders of the Hungarian uprising of last year, has been convicted by a closed court and is runs the risk of being executed. Two additional Hungarian writers, Josef Gali and Gyula Obersovsky were sentenced to death last spring by a Budapest court, but were later granted a pardon. (Editor’s Note: Dery was given a pardon in 1960. He died in 1977.) Mr Graymond, leader of the British Liberal Party, said here yesterday that a number of letters to Hungarian exiles in Britain refer to the trial of Dery, who is 63 years old and was for 20 years a member of the Communist Party and the leader of the Petefi Circle which played a prominent role in events that led to the uprising. During the final years of the Matyas Rakosi regime, Dery protested against the undemocratic measures that were paralyzing the country’s cultural life and was ousted from the party, although he was later reinstated by Imre Nagy’s regime.
