Hungarian court acquits camerawoman seen kicking, tripping migrants in video

A Hungarian court acquitted a camerawoman caught tipping and kicking migrants on video. (NCCourts.gov)

A Hungarian camerawoman caught on video kicking and trying to trip migrants as they fled police near the Hungary-Serbia border in 2015 was acquitted, Hungary's highest court announced this week.

Hungary's supreme court, the Kuria, revised two lower court decisions that sentenced Petra Laszlo to three years probation for disorderly conduct.

The court said Laszlo should not have been charged with a criminal offense, but instead a misdemeanor. It also said the case had to be terminated because a statute of limitations had expired.

Laszlo was filming migrants in September 2015 for her then-employer, internet-based N1TV, passing through the country on their way to western Europe when several broke through a police cordon. Some had bumped into her as they ran by.

She responded by kicking two people, including a young girl. The incident was filmed and quickly went viral, leading to death threats and her termination. She also appeared to trip a migrant child.

Laszlo claimed she was acting in self-defense.

"It is not a crime if somebody acts to defend herself ... she was in danger, and she tried to avert this danger with her actions," her attorney Ferenc Sipos told the Associated Press at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.