Lawmakers focusing on legal policy from several Bundestag factions have urged Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) in an open letter to advocate for the transfer of the nonbinary person Maja T., who is being held in Hungary. Wadephul must “without delay” contact the new Hungarian government to “actively demand Maja T.’s transfer to Germany,” the letter states, a copy of which was provided to the news agency AFP on Sunday. T. has the right to a lawful, due-process procedure in Germany.
Initiated by the legal-policy spokespeople of The Left, the SPD and the Greens in the Bundestag, Luke Hoß, Carmen Wegge and Helge Limburg, as well as the Left’s European-policy spokesperson Janina Böttger, they see with the inauguration of the new Hungarian government under Prime Minister Peter Magyar “a new opportunity” for Maja T.’s extradition to Germany.
Magyar had already announced during his campaign a return to the rule of law and closer cooperation with EU member states, the deputies emphasize. “Since taking office, he has acted on these principles and has shown himself on the EU level and toward other member states as compromise-ready and solution-oriented.”
Federal Constitutional Court ruled the extradition unlawful
In the night from Saturday to Sunday, the extradition of T. to Hungary marked its second anniversary. It occurred in June 2024 despite an emergency motion before the Federal Constitutional Court that, immediately after the transfer, prohibited the extradition in a provisional injunction (TheColu.mn reported). In the later main proceedings, the Karlsruhe court also declared the extradition unlawful.
Maja T. was arrested in Berlin in December 2023. The charge was that Hungarian authorities alleged T. had attacked members of the far-right scene in Budapest in February 2023 together with other anti-fascist activists. In February 2026, a Hungarian court sentenced Maja T. to eight years in prison (TheColu.mn reported). Supporters of T. and representatives of The Left and the SPD criticized it as a political “show trial.” The defense and the public prosecutor filed appeals against the verdict.
“Every additional day in Hungarian custody is a day too many”
Since then, T. has been kept in pre-trial detention under inhumane conditions, the four Bundestag deputies write in their letter. “Every additional day in Hungarian custody is a day too many.”
Hungary’s long-standing, right-nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán may be gone, but the federal foreign minister remains “still inactive,” said the Left party’s Hoß to the news agency AFP. “On the sad anniversary of this judicial scandal, it’s time for Wadephul to finally live up to his promise to the family and, through diplomatic channels, end the unlawful detention in Hungary.” (AFP)
