Hungarian camerawoman plans to sue Facebook and the refugee she tripped

By Christina Majaski October 22, 2015

In case the recent footage of a Hungarian camerawoman caught tripping and kicking fleeing Syrian refugees couldn’t get any uglier, it has been reported by a Russian newspaper, that the camerawoman intends on suing not just Facebook, but also the one of the migrants she was caught on video tripping tripping.

In September, video footage of Petra László tripping a fleeing refugee and causing him to fall onto his child quickly went viral. The video also shows László randomly kicking other migrants, including a young girl. László was one of many videographers and reporters on the scene filming migrants who were attempting to reach Austria and Germany as they broke through the holding camp’s police line in southern Hungary, with only the belongings they could carry in their arms. The refugees then hiked or walked about four miles, dropping many of their belongings along the way.

After the video of László was released, the camerawoman was fired from her job at Hungarian TV channel N1TV and investigated for various offenses including suspicion of committing a public nuisance. She currently faces a criminal trial for breach of the peace and initially stated that she was sorry for her actions and was just scared of the crowds.

According to the recent interview with the Russian newspaper, however, the camerawoman now intends to sue Facebook, which she feels, “helped embitter people against me.” She also plans to sue the man she tripped, Osama Abdel-Muhsen Alghadab, who ended up falling onto his child. According to László, she can “prove that refugee Osama was wrong,” because of his recent comment to the Daily Mail that, “One of the policemen tripped my son but it wasn’t as bad as the camerawoman … He fell onto the ground, that’s why I was holding him.”

Because of the release of the video, László also stated that she doesn’t see a future for herself in Hungary and is considering moving her and her family to Russia.

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Christina Majaski

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Christina has written for print and online publications since 2003. In her spare time, she wastes an exorbitant amount of…

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