[JURIST] Bela Biszku, a high-ranking Communist official convicted of war crimes committed during the aftermath of the Hungarian revolution [BBC backgrounder], died on Thursday at the age of 94. When Soviet forces shut down [AP report] the Hungarian uprising in 1956, more than 224 civilians were executed and 10,000 civilians imprisoned. At the time, Biszku was operating as a Hungary’s interior minister. Though he denied any involvement, historians claim that Biszku was a member of the Communist Party’s executive committee and played a key role in implementing repression.

In 2014, Biszku was sentenced to over 5 years imprisonment and was connected to approximately 50 deaths. During retrial [JURIST report] last December, Biszku’s sentence was reduced and he was absolved of communist party-related crimes. When Biszku passed away in Budapest, his conviction was still pending further appeal.