Maja T suspends hunger strike as pressure mounts to reverse extradition

Antifascist in critical condition as father delivers mass petition to German foreign ministry

~ Alisa-Ece Tohumcu ~

After forty days, Maja T has suspended their hunger strike due to deteriorating health conditions. According to the Budapest Antifascist Solidarity Committee, they have lost 14 kilograms, their liver and kidneys are damaged, and their blood counts are too low.

Maja said in a statement that their body, “a skeleton, with an unbroken, combative, and vibrant spirit…refuses to accept that there is no justice. But I’m not ready to take the step into imminent death”. Their demands remain to be returned to house arrest in Germany and “prepare for the trial on equal terms and not be buried alive in a cell”.

Held in isolation in Hungary since June 2024, Maja faces charges in connection with a February 2023 attack on the “Day of Honour” neo-Nazi gathering in Budapest that could result in up to 24 years imprisonment. They were arrested in Berlin in December 2023 and extradited to Hungary in a “night and fog” operation, ruled illegal hours later by Germany’s federal court.

According to their lawyer, “Maja took advantage of perhaps the last window of opportunity in which a self-determined decision was still possible and chose life—also so that she could have a say in the fight for humane prison conditions and due process”.

Maja’s father, Wolfram Jarosch, was able to visit Maja there for the first time over the weekend and subsequently told the tageszeitung newspaper that “Maja has lost a lot of weight, her cheeks are sunken; the weight loss is clearly visible”. The paper reported Hungarian doctors had recently suggested implanting a pacemaker or force-feeding the prisoner.

Jarosch travelled from Jena to last week to meet with Federal Foreign Minister Wadephul, delivering a petition signed by over 100,000 people calling for Maja’s repatriation and release. Supported by a small demonstration on July 6 and a rally the following day, he handed over the petition to the Federal Foreign Office.

According to the Solidarity Committee, the Federal Foreign Office has “repeatedly asserted its support for Maja” including visits from Budapest embassy staff who attended the court hearings. Despite assurances, however, the Committee said politicians “have so far lacked the political will or leeway” to meaningfully intervene.

Another arrestee in the case, Italian Ilaria Salis, was released to house arrest in May 2024 and has since been elected Member of the European Parliament.

Solidarity actions with Maja T. have continued in the last week. An unannounced demonstration on 10 July moved through Hamburg’s trendy Schanzenviertel district with slogans, pyro and smoke. Another spontaneous demonstration took place in Leipzig, where a few dozen anti-fascists set off fireworks and distributed leaflets in the Südvorstadt, attacking a Green Party office along the way. In Bern, activists unfurled a banner and turned a water hose on the German embassy.

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