Tamas Gyarfas Pays 200 Million Bond Ahead of Murder Trial in Hungary

Photo Courtesy: Swimming World

Tamas Gyarfas has paid the 200 million bail ($700,000) to be released from jail in Hungary while he awaits a murder trial, multiple news sources reported.

The former head of the Hungarian swimming federation has continually denied allegations that he ordered the killing of media business rival Janos Fenyo in 1998.

Fenyo was fatally shot in his car in downtown Budapest in 1998.

Gyarfas was arrested in April on suspicion of ordering the murder. He was ordered to wear a tracking device.

Gyarfas and Fenyo were both key players in the Hungarian media industry but were working for rival businesses. He has denied any involvement in the murder of Fenyo, a crime in which Slovakian Jozef Rohac is serving a lifetime sentence for. The person who hired Rohac had previously not been identified.

Gyarfas, who led the Hungarian Swimming Federation from 1993 to 2006 while also holding top positions in European and international swimming organizations was the leader of Hungary’s Olympic committee.

Fenyo, who worked for years as a press photographer, launched a successful chain of video rental stores shortly after returning in 1987 from a stay in the United States, according to The Associated Press. Later, he began building a media company that grew to include popular magazines and newspapers as well as a cable TV channel.

He had a well-known rivalry with Gyarfas, who was the producer of state television’s morning program, the AP reported.

On Feb. 11, 1998, Fenyo was shot numerous times with a Croatian-made submachine gun, which later was recovered by police, according to the AP. The assassination shocked the country and speculation about its motive immediately centered on Fenyo’s legal and allegedly illegal business dealings, news sources reported.

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