On the evening of June 22, unknown assailants abducted investigative journalist Iren Karman in the outskirts of the capital, Budapest, according to international press reports. The assailants pushed Karman into a car, tied her up, and severely beat her before leaving her on the banks of the Danube River, where she was found by a fisherman, the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) reported. Karman was hospitalized for more than a week and underwent surgery for internal bleeding, MTI said. The 40-year-old journalist had recently published a book, Facing the Mafia, detailing illegal oil sales in the 1990s, and was working on a related documentary at the time of the assault. The book describes the practice of "oil bleaching" – removing a characteristic red dye from government-subsidized heating oil in order to sell it as diesel at a higher price. Shortly before the attack, Karman had complained on an Internet blog that she had been receiving e-mail and telephone threats.

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