was saved, but he retained a permanent eye injury. The attackers were never officially identified, or convicted. On 20 March 1990, Mihăilă Cofariu, an ethnic Romanian from Ibănești village brought to Târgu Mureș along with others to beat Hungarians was severely beaten even after he fell unconscious. Following that he remained neurologically disabled. The event was presented in international media as a Hungarian being beaten by Romanians. He was brought in coma to the county's emergency hospital and spent several months in hospitals in Romania and Germany. One of the perpetrators, ethnic Hungarian Pál Cseresznyés, was tried, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he was released in 1996 by Romanian President Emil Constantinescu, as an act of reconciliation. The other convicted perpetrator, Ernő Barabás, emigrated to Hungary. He has also received a 10-year imprisonment sentence, but the Hungarian authorities denied all requests for extradition from the Romanian authorities. In April 2020, Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei claim in several articles that Ernő Barabás is the owner of the Hell Energy Drink company. Dispute over causes The prevalent opinion in the Romanian public is that the incidents were triggered by direct attacks by Hungarians against Romanian institutions, symbols, statues and policemen. They claim that the riots were part of a plan to separate part of Transylvania from Romania to reintegrate it with Hungary. Most Hungarians maintain, however, that rumours about Hungarian violence against Romanians and/or state institutions were unjustified or widely exaggerated. Hungarians also state that rumours about Hungarian violence were spread to undermine legitimate Hungarian demands (such as language, cultural rights or possible ethnic-based regional autonomy). Involvement of Romanian government The nature of the involvement of the Romanian government is also disputed. The official account is that the government quickly succeeded in calming the situation and ended the clashes. However, that has been disputed: Many Hungarians claim that the government was slow to act and failed to stem the violence at the beginning and thus responsible for its escalation. They support their arguments with filmed scenes in which police or other representatives of the authorities overlook events. They also criticise the fact that the vast majority of those taken into custody after the events were ethnic Hungarians, which suggests an ethnic bias. Many ethnic Romanians claim that the government did not intervene fast enough to protect the population and that clearly-identified Hungarians involved in the violence were not