BUDAPEST, Hungary (KRON/CNN) — A Hungarian camerawoman caught on video kicking and tripping desperate migrants as they fled near the Serbian border has apologized, saying her actions had nothing to do with racism.
The video released this week shows Petra Laszlo kicking and tripping migrants Tuesday near the village of Roszke. The 40-year-old Laszlo was documenting the wave of migrants, many from the Middle East, sprinting from a holding camp in Hungary when she’s seen tripping a man running with a child in his arms.
The man and child tumble to the ground. Moments later, the same camerawoman kicks other migrants, including a young girl, as they ran.
A backlash ensued after video of her attacks surfaced and the images went viral on social media. Laszlo was fired by her employer, the Hungarian nationalist N1TV station.
Now the videographer is extending an apology, saying in a letter to Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet that it was all a misunderstanding.
The letter describes how the ensuing panic scared her and made her think she would be attacked.
“I am very sorry for the incident, and as a mother I am especially sorry for the fact that fate pushed a child in my way. I did not see that at that moment. I started to panic and as I re-watch the film, it seems as it was not even me,” her letter states.
She described her panic and writes that “something snapped inside me… I just thought they were on the attack and I had to defend myself. It’s hard to make good decisions when one is panicking.”
In the letter, Laszlo also criticized those who condemned her on social media and said that she had received death threats.
“I am not a heartless, child-kicking, racist camera operator. I do not deserve the political witch hunt that has been launched against me, nor do I deserve the abusive threats that often call for my death. I am just a woman, who has recently become an unemployed mother,” she wrote.
Laszlo’s former employer, N1TV, regularly carries reports supportive to Jobbik, an ultranationalist party that calls for all foreigners to be deported.
Laszlo was one of the videographers documenting the flood of migrants trying to get through Hungary on the way to Austria and Germany. The migrants include refugees trying to escape the carnage brought on by terrorists and war in their homelands.
After crossing from Serbia into Hungary with only the belongings they could carry, the migrants were stuck for days at a holding camp in southern Hungary. Many complained about uncomfortable or inhumane conditions in the camp.
After breaking through the holding camp’s police line Tuesday, they scrambled across a field, walked and hiked about 4 miles — many dropping their possessions on the ground.
Hungary, a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention aimed at protecting refugees, has come under criticism for its handling of migrants and for installing a razor-wire fence to stop the flow.
Hungary has said it is just trying to enforce European Union laws on restricting migrants without proper documentation.
Laszlo is being investigated on suspicion of committing a public nuisance offense, a spokesman for the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Szeged told CNN. Police questioned Laszlo on suspicion of disorderly conduct Thursday, released her without charge, and say the investigation is continuing.
Prosecutors say they’re considering whether to investigate her on more serious offenses.