The World - News from May 23, 1989

Premier Imre Nagy and leaders of the 1956 Hungarian uprising were “victims of show trials” and their executions were a political mistake, Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn said. The statement represented a shift in the view of the Hungarian Communist Party and appeared to open the way for Nagy’s rehabilitation. Nagy had declared Hungary’s neutrality and its withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact during a period of mass demonstrations that provoked a Soviet invasion on Oct. 23, 1956. Nagy and two associates were found guilty of treason in June, 1958, and executed. Nagy’s remains were exhumed from an unmarked grave in March and are to be reburied June 16.