14 migrants held on charges of assaulting police in Hungary

The district court of Kecskemet, some 85 km southeast of Budapest, has ordered that 14 men - five Iraqis, four Afghans, three Iranians, one Syrian, and one Algerian - be held in custody awaiting trial on charges of assaulting police as a group, the court informed local wire service MTI on Monday.

Spokesman Szabolcs Sarkozy said the charges were the outcome of a fight that broke out at a reception facility in Kiskunhalas, about 65 kilometers south of Kecskemet, last Friday over who got to access the Internet.

Initially there were only two combatants, both Iraqi, one of whom began fighting with the police sent to break up the scuffle. At this point a group of men began throwing stones at the police and the aggression accelerated to the point where the social workers at the facility had to be rescued.

The disturbance lasted roughly half an hour and was eventually quelled by tear gas and police reinforcements.

According to Gyorgy Bakondi, the prime minister's chief advisor on domestic security, some 180 police officers were needed to restore order.

Ten of the men appealed the decision to keep them under preliminary detention. Enditem