The Istvan G. Pinter Case: The Military Prosecution

After the incident, the atmosphere around him turned icy. A few months later, while he was arranging the funeral of a close relative, an official committee opened his safe and reviewed all the cases he had handled. Since they found no errors or omissions in criminal cases, they noted a delay of a few days in a minor matter. Although this could not be attributed to Dr. Pinter, he nevertheless received a disciplinary reprimand, which was recorded in his personnel file. The whistleblower indicated to his immediate superior that the reprimand might be related to the recorded minutes, but no action was taken.

After a short while, the experienced typist who had been assisting Pinter was transferred to another prosecutor, and he was assigned a novice who had just graduated from typing school. This decision did not merely make his work more difficult; it rendered it nearly impossible. The large number of investigations and the strict deadlines associated with them could not be met with a novice typist, even if, for example, he typed the criminal statistics forms himself after work, often late into the night. He turned once again to his immediate superior, who, however, indicated that he could not protect him and that, and suggested that he should seek employment elsewhere.