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Due to espionage and other crimes in an unusual lawsuit in Hungary, the prosecutor asked Béla Kovács, a former right-wing politician, to be imprisoned for about seven years on his indictment in the Budapest District Court on Wednesday, MTI reported.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution lodged a complaint against the politician elected to the European Parliament in the colors of Jobbik in the 2010 EU elections in April 2014, and then in October 2015, on the motion of the Attorney General, the EP waived the immunity of Béla Kovács. In December 2017, the Central Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against Béla Kovács and three of his colleagues for espionage against the institutions of the European Union, as well as for budget fraud and use of false private documents. Béla Kovács, for his part, left Jobbik.
According to the indictment, between 2012 and 2014, the deputy provided Russian intelligence with information on energy issues, the EP elections, the internal political situation in Hungary and the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant. In doing so, the prosecution said it was seeking to promote the creation of an openly anti-EU camp with a solid background in the EP, which sought to disrupt the institutions of the European communities from within by prioritizing Russian interests.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor highlighted in his espionage indictment that primarily the acquisition, collection, analysis of data and transfer to a foreign intelligence organization is an intelligence activity. One of the behaviors is sufficient to establish a crime, but “proceduralism” is needed. The alleged intelligence activities of the accused clearly harmed the interests of the EU institutions. Although the defendant stated that if asked, he would have discussed his actions, he maintained a well-established conspiratorial relationship with Russian civil intelligence, his people who were delegated to Hungary, and participated in intelligence activities under diplomatic cover. In the process, Béla Kovács clearly knew the rules of the conspiracy and followed them regularly.
It was by no means a simple exchange of views, spontaneous friendly conversations, the first 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.
Describing the details of the espionage, the court ordered a closed-door hearing at the request of the prosecutor.
In the other accusation, in a case investigated by OLAF, the MP allegedly caused more than 21,000 euros (more than six million guilders) in financial damages to the EP in 2012-2013 as the perpetrator and to three fellow criminal assistants. In Wednesday’s trial, the prosecutor said that the internship contracts were false, that they did not have a substantial job behind them, they served as a disguised subsidy, causing a financial disadvantage for the PE.
According to the defendant’s defense, the idea was originally for the apprentices to be in Brussels, but then he fired them, but forgot to modify the contracts and later admitted that it was a mistake. The testimonies of the three accused apprentices revealed that they had not visited Brussels or had barely visited, they kept in contact with Béla Kovács by email or by phone. His job essentially consisted of nothing more than monitoring the press and he was an intern whose activities were not related to the EU at all. The trainees argued during the procedure that they could not comment on what happened.
According to the prosecutor, Béla Kovács and the three accused apprentices also knew that they were entering into contracts with false content and would not do any significant work. There were defendants who entered into another full-time contract a few days before the conclusion of their internship contract, which clearly could not be enforced at the same time.
The representative of the prosecution also explained that Béla Kovács had previously compensated the damage caused to the EP, for which he asked Béla Kovács for the average of 2-12 years that the law could impose on him on the basis of the three crimes charged, that is, a prison sentence of about 7 years. He suspended the prisoner accused of three counts of budget fraud and fined all four defendants.
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.
Defense talks are expected at the next hearing scheduled for Friday. The first instance verdict could be announced next week in the Budapest District Court.
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