Former Orbán-era minister detained on suspicion of corruption

Miklós Seszták, a Christian-Democrat member of the Hungarian Parliament and former Minister of National Development was detained on Monday at the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office, 24.hu learned from Gábor Papp, the politician’s attorney. Seszták did not show up at Parliament the day the vote on suspending his immunity was scheduled for, but went to the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office instead, according to him, to give a statement. He maintains his innocence.

Parliament voted to suspend Seszták’s immunity, (along with that of former Fidesz Minister of Culture Balázs Hankó and Prime Minister Péter Magyar) with 139 votes in favor and no abstentions or votes against, allowing proceedings against the KDNP representative to begin in the corruption cases identified by the prosecutor’s office last week. If the court should find him guilty, Seszták could face up to 10 years in prison, which would put an end to a political career that has spanned nearly the entire period since the fall of communism.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, which requested the lifting of his immunity, there are well-founded grounds to believe that while serving as Minister of National Development between 2014 and 2018, Miklós Seszták accepted bribes from construction contractors ranging from hundreds of millions to several billion forints. According to the prosecutor’s office, Seszták and Norbert Szivek, then-CEO of the Hungarian National Asset Management Company, obtained 11 billion forints in unlawful benefits, but there are several other incriminating testimonies against Seszták as well.

Upon hearing the news that his parliamentary immunity had been requested, Seszták, who has ranked among the wealthiest members of parliament since 2010, previously stated that every element of the charges brought by the prosecutor’s office was unfounded. “I have not committed any crime, and I am not aware of any crime having been committed,” he said at the time.