Hungary sentences Syrian migrant to five years' jail for border riot

Hungarian judge Erik Mezolaki delivers the verdict in the case of Syrian-Cypriot Ahmed Hamed accused of illegally crossing the border and playing a part in a riot at Hungary's border with Serbia in September 2015, in Szeged, Hungary, September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

SZEGED, Hungary (Reuters) - A Hungarian court sentenced a Syrian-Cypriot man to five years in prison on Thursday for crossing the border as part of a riot during the migrant crisis, in a case that has drawn criticism from the European Parliament and Amnesty International.

Ahmed Hamed was among a group of migrants that crossed into Hungary on Sept. 16, 2015 from Serbia, pelting policemen with rocks before hundreds of migrants forced open the border gate and police fired water cannon and teargas.