Hungarian PM questioned in connection with allegations of cell phone theft

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced on his Facebook page that he was questioned by the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office (KNYF) on Wednesday evening in connection with what has been referred to as “the cell phone theft case”. According to his post, he gave a brief statement but did not admit to the crime he is being accused of. “This evening, at a previously agreed-upon time, I was questioned by the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office in connection with the events of June 21, 2024. I gave a brief statement and did not admit to the crime I am accused of. I will provide updates on any further developments,” the PM wrote in his post.

Shortly after the questioning, the KNYF also issued a statement, saying that the Prime Minister had been questioned as a suspect. “Dr. Péter Magyar did not admit to committing the crime and put forward a substantive defence,” they wrote, adding that no further details on the case could be disclosed at this time. Following the KNYF’s statement, Péter Magyar posted another message on Facebook. “During my interrogation, which was the result of political provocation, I neither saw Viktor Orbán waiting to be questioned in the ‘cash transport’ case, nor Ádám Matolcsy and his associates waiting to be questioned about the MNB case worth hundreds of billions of forints in the hallway of the prosecutor’s office…What tyranny!”-he wrote, likely referring to the fact that the former governing party has been saying that the Tisza government is building a system based on tyranny.

Legal proceedings may be initiated against Péter Magyar on suspicion of theft, after the prosecutor’s office alleged that, following a dispute at a nightclub called Ötkert in 2024, (shortly after he had been elected a member of the European Parliament) he took another man’s cell phone and threw it into the Danube. At the time, the prosecutor’s office summarized the case as follows: “According to the available information, in the early hours of June 21, 2024, Dr. Péter Magyar was at a club in Budapest, where the complainant was (one of those) recording him on his cell phone. After Dr. Péter Magyar and one of his companions noticed that the man was recording them, they got into an argument with him. During the altercation, Dr. Péter Magyar suddenly snatched the phone from the complainant's hand and put it in his pocket. He refused to return the phone despite the complainant's repeated requests and denied having it in his possession. After leaving the nightclub, he headed toward the Danube, and several people, including the complainant, followed him. The MEP walked down to the riverbank and deliberately dropped the phone into the Danube.”

The prosecutor’s office requested that Parliament waive Péter Magyar’s immunity on the same day as it requested the same for former ministers Miklós Seszták and Balázs Hankó, who have since been arrested on charges of corruption in separate cases. At an extraordinary session convened for September 28, Parliament voted to suspend the parliamentary immunity of all three politicians. Péter Magyar had in fact requested that his parliamentary immunity be suspended.