Deres László

László Deres was born in 1948, in Gölle, Somogy county. His grandparents were farmers and were labeled as kulaks in the Rákosi era. His father worked as a miner in Komló. László completed his secondary school studies in Dombóvár and had been checked on by the AVH several times. He graduated from secondary school in 1966. He, subsequently, continued his studies in a higher vocational school training water experts, but dropped out after the first term. From 1967 onwards he was doing his military service in Taszár as a driver. On completing his military service, he worked as a miner and a driver alternatively. In August 1974, he fled the country illegally swimming across the Danube at Mohács to the other side. Alongside with his expecting wife, they made it to the Yugoslavian-Italian border but due to exhaustion they gave it up and hitch-hiked back to Letenye, where his wife crossed the border check using her passport, whereas he swam across the River Mura at Letenye. He was sentenced to 8 months' suspended imprisonment. In August 1975, he made another attempt swimming across the River Drava at Heresznye. He stayed at a refugee camp in Latina, Italy. He arrived in the United States in 1976 but being unable to overcome his home sickness, he was determined to come back to Hungary. He flew to Rome in 1977 and got to Hungary via Yugoslavia, where he was arrested, and extradited to the Hungarian authorities. He had been sentenced to two years and four months for leaking military intelligence and illegal border crossing. After his release he worked in Komló as a professional driver and hit a drunk man through no fault of his own, who subsequently died of his injuries. As a result, László Deres was arrested and served a 9 month sentence. After being released, he got a job in the mine. Between 1988 and 1990 he worked as a taxi driver, which was followed by a period of forwarding as a truck driver and working as a bus driver. He retired in 2010.

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