According to the prosecutor’s office, former Jobbik MEP maintained contact with the Russians under diplomatic cover.

Béla Kovács, a former right-wing politician, was asked to serve a prison term of about seven years for espionage and other crimes in the indictment of the prosecutor’s office at the Budapest District Court on Wednesday.

Béla Kovács became a Member of the European Parliament for Jobbik in May 2010. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution lodged a complaint in April 2014, and then in October 2015, at the request of the Attorney General, the EP suspended the immunity of Béla Kovács. In December 2017, the Central Investigations Prosecutor’s Office charged Béla Kovács and three of his colleagues with espionage against the institutions of the European Union (EU) and with the use of budget fraud and false private documents. Béla Kovács, for his part, left Jobbik.

The essence of the accusation was that between 2012 and 2014, the deputy passed information to Russian intelligence on energy issues, the EP elections, the internal political situation in Hungary and the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant. The aim of all this, according to the indictment, was to create an openly anti-EU camp in the EP with a solid background, to disintegrate the institutions of the European Communities from within and to give priority to Russian interests.

On Wednesday, the prosecutor said in an espionage indictment that the purpose of intelligence is to provide information to decision makers. In criminal law, the acquisition, collection and analysis of data and the transfer of data to a foreign intelligence organization are primarily intelligence activities. One of the behaviors is enough to establish a crime, but a certain procedure is required. In the present case, the intelligence activity was detrimental to the interests of the EU institutions.

The prosecutor recalled that

under the defense of the accused, he did not carry out any intelligence activity, nor did he keep what was accused of him in the indictment secret, if he had been asked he would have spoken about it.

On the contrary, according to the prosecutor, the first defendant, who was a member of the Energy Committee of the European Parliament at the time of the indictment, was maintaining a well-established conspiracy with Russian civil intelligence intelligence officers in Hungary to satisfy his news needs. in progress.

Béla Kovács knew the rules of the conspiracy and she followed them. His case was by no means an exchange of views, spontaneous friendly conversations, the first-rate defendant knew what was expected of him, passed on the information he had obtained as an MEP, improved his position on the Russian side and made the EU worse, said the prosecutor.

When there were details related to espionage in the prosecution, the court ordered a closed hearing at the request of the prosecutor.

In another budget fraud case, which was investigated by OLAF, the MP allegedly caused more than € 21,000 (more than HUF 6 million) in financial damage to the EP in 2012-2013 as the perpetrator and three fellow trainees. internships.

Regarding this allegation, the prosecutor said on Wednesday that the internship contracts were false, they did not have a background job behind them, they served as covert support, which caused a pecuniary disadvantage to the EP.

The prosecutor asked Béla Kovács for a median sentence of 2 to 12 years, that is, about 7 years, suspended for three apprentices accused of budget fraud, as well as a fine for four accused.

Béla Kovács said in Wednesday’s trial: he is unemployed and has no income.

Throughout the process, he denied the accusations against him and his attorney repeatedly asked that the documents be decrypted.

The next hearing, scheduled for Friday, is expected to be followed by defensive speeches, and the first instance verdict could be announced next week in a criminal lawsuit filed against Béla Kovács and others for espionage and other crimes in the District Court of Budapest.

We wrote more about the Béla Kovács case here before.


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KGBéla trial continues, witnesses will soon be questioned


hvg.hu
At home

This year a verdict may be handed down in the case of the former Jobbik deputy.

A verdict in the KGBéla case may soon be delivered


hvg.hu
At home

Former Jobbik MEP Béla Kovács could face up to 11 years in prison. A first-instance verdict on your case, charged with espionage and budget fraud, may soon be handed down.