The Hungarian camerawoman who tripped two Syrian refugees fleeing from police has claimed she plans to sue Facebook, as well as the man she caused to stumble and fall as he carried his child.
Petra László lost her job at Hungarian TV channel N1TV after the footage went viral and now faces a criminal trial in December for breach of the peace.
Following the conclusion of the trial, László claimed to Russian newspaper Izvestia she intended to sue the social media giant for facilitating an online campaign against her.
“Facebook played a major role in my situation,” she claimed and added the network “helped embitter people against me.” A Facebook page titled “Petra Laszlo Shame Wall” currently has around 10,000 likes.
She claimed that Syrian refugee Osama Abdel-Muhsen Alghadab, 52, who was tripped by László causing him to fall on his seven-year-old child, had changed his testimony.
“One of the policemen tripped my son but it wasn’t as bad as the camerawoman,” Mr Alghdab told the Daily Mail shortly after the incident. “He fell onto the ground, that’s why I was holding him.”
László also told the Russian paper she and her family were considering moving abroad – potentially to Russia – as she could see no future for herself in Hungary.
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“But one thing we know for sure: we will sue Facebook. And we will also prove that the refugee Osama was wrong.”
László’s actions on 8 September on the Hungarian-Serbian border were exposed by German RTL reporter Stephan Richter. The footage provoked international condemnation and László subsequently claimed she was “truly sorry” for her actions in September, claiming she had been “scared” by the desparate crowds.
