Hungary detains former culture minister over alleged embezzlement
Hungarian prosecutors have detained former culture minister and current MP Balázs Hankó on suspicion of embezzling money from the National Cultural Fund. The politician denies the charges, calling it a political show trial.
On Tuesday, September 29, Hungarian prosecutors announced the detention of a former culture minister from Viktor Orbán's ex-cabinet on suspicion of embezzling funds from the National Cultural Fund (NKA). Reuters reported this citing a prosecutors' statement, according to "European Pravda".
The person in question is former culture minister and sitting MP Balázs Hankó. According to prosecutors, he was detained on Monday, September 28, at the National Tax and Customs Administration, after lawmakers voted to strip him of parliamentary immunity.
"As a result of an ongoing investigation (...) into the criminal offense of embezzlement (...) the prosecutor's office took MP Balázs Hankó into custody and questioned him as a suspect," prosecutors said in their statement.
Hankó himself denied the accusations during a live broadcast on Orbán's Facebook page. "My conscience is clear, this is a political show trial," he said.
The day before, it was reported that the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office had announced the launch of investigations into four cases related to the period of Orbán's premiership.
As a reminder, in June Hungary's Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced the launch of operation "Cleansing Fire", aimed at corruption across all branches of power and targeting officials of the previous, Orbán-led, government. As part of this operation, a new anti-corruption body was established – the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office.
Orbán caused a scandal in Hungary by attacking the agency during a television interview, threatening that Fidesz would publish the names of people working there and track cases they had been involved in investigating.
