Businessman Tamás Gárfás, the former president of the Hungarian Swimming Federation, was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison for conspiring to kill a rival businessman in 1998, AFP reported.

Tamas Gjarfas, sentenced to seven years in prison – Planned the murder of Janos Fenyo

At the age of 74, Gárfas was found guilty of “deliberate incitement to murder” by the Budapest Regional Court, which handed down the sentence under tight security.

Gjarfas, who was also vice-president of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) between 2013 and 2017, said during last year’s debate that he had “nothing to do” with the case, which “ruined his life”.

The events date back to February 11, 1998, when János Fenó, a competitor of the media mogul, was shot with an automatic weapon at a traffic light in the center of Budapest.

The shooter, a Slovak, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012. Only six years later, Djarfas was arrested and placed under strict judicial control in connection with a case that shocked Hungary.

According to the prosecutor, there was a “commercial dispute, a struggle for power and, as a result, an acute personal conflict” between the two men.

Heading the Hungarian Swimming Federation (MUSZ) for 23 years, Djarfas hired his first assassin in September 1997, but he escaped. He then hired a second hitman, Tamas Portick, who eventually staged the killing, according to the indictment.

Gjarfas, who had already been imprisoned for other crimes, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

Appointed head of MUSZ in 1993, Tamas Gjarfas, a former sports journalist, was forced to resign in November 2016 after being criticized by Olympic champion Katinka Hossza for his authoritarian leadership style, poor training conditions and non-payment of bonuses, writes News .ro. .