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After the death of Stalin the church policy of the communist states formerly belonging to the Soviet bloc began to change gradually. In 1955 Áron Márton, a Roman Catholic bishop sentenced to death, was released from prison, and many other priests, monks and ministers were freed. Hungarian Protestant churches in Romania were allowed to contact sister churches in Hungary and the world. Following a simplified administrative procedure for obtaining passports, people were allowed to travel abroad and build relationships. Romanian citizens became aware of the unease and dissatisfaction towards the political system in Hungary. The events of the 1956 Revolution were followed mostly through the radio, and Hungarians in Romania have openly expressed their sympathy, especially university students and students of theology. They openly opposed the official propaganda labelling the Hungarian uprising as counter-revolution. After the revolution in Hungary was suppressed, the Romanian state power also retaliated. In the first period the Hungarian clergy were mingled especially in other kind of political issues. Then, after 1958, several explicitly church oriented suits followed. Four lawsuits against 26 Protestant theological students, ministers and theology professors. In three so-called Bethanist-cases 21 ministers and church members were found guilty. 15 further church members were convicted in show trials, in many cases based on their attitude towards the 1956 Revolution. These trials were part of an anti-religious propaganda started in 1957, but in a larger context they were intended to intimidate the Hungarian ethnic people. They intended to create a context of fear, in which the communist power could take the initiative to liquidate the autonomous Hungarian university and undergraduate school system, and in which, by means of his own delegated church representatives, could intervene and control the church from within.