Áron Orbán, former Hungarian PM's brother arrested

The court has ordered the arrest of Áron Orbán and his girlfriend for one month, according to a spokesperson for the Budapest Metropolitan Court. Another one of the suspects involved in the visa affair has been placed under criminal supervision, while the fourth suspect will be allowed to plead his case without being detained.

Police escorted Áron Orbán, his live-in partner, and another suspect involved in the visa affair in handcuffs into the building of the Central District Court of Buda shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. It was here that a hearing was held to decide on the arrest of Áron Orbán and his associates. The suspects were transported to the courthouse in separate police vans, where they were met by a large crowd of journalists, but the former prime minister’s younger brother did not answer any questions posed by the journalists. Orbán’s defense attorney arrived a few minutes before 10:00 a.m., but Éva Edit Schalkház also declined to answer questions and hurried into the building.

Orbán and his associates are suspected of having helped Vietnamese citizens travel to Western Europe via Hungary over a period of several months in 2024. According to the allegations, they provided assistance with the processing of visa applications at Hungarian diplomatic missions, for which each person was charged a so-called “recruitment fee,” and they then split the proceeds. Based on information available to the authorities so far, they may have assisted more than a hundred Vietnamese citizens this way.

The Budapest Chief Prosecutor’s Office initiated the group's arrest because of the gravity of the crime, as well as the suspects' extensive network of foreign connections. If the charges are proven, their sentences could range from five to ten years.

Agents of the Counter-Terrorism Center arrived at a property in Fótliget linked to a company owned by Áron Orbán on Monday morning. In a joint operation of the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) and the National Office for Asset Recovery and Protection (NVVH), four people were taken into custody in Budapest, Fót, and Dunakeszi that morning. For a long time, it could only be presumed that the former prime minister’s brother was among the suspects, but a photo journalist managed to capture Áron Orbán when he was being transported to the detention center later that evening. The NVVH suspects Áron Orbán and his associates of influence peddling, while the National Bureau of Investigation suspects them of people smuggling.

Telex first broke the story about Áron Orbán and his business partners back in May 2025 in an article titled “You are doing business with the Prime Minister’s younger brother. So you know what that means". We started investigating the case involving Áron Orbán’s associates of dubious background after an audio recording was leaked in which the former prime minister’s brother is heard speaking with Dávid Héjj, one of Viktor Orbán’s aides, at the Prime Minister’s Office complex. The audio recording revealed that Áron Orbán and his associates were involved in getting visas for guest workers, but that some of their visa applications were being blocked by the authorities.