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Zoltán Székely was a member of Parliament and president of the Entrepreneurship Section of the Party of Small Independent Producers in the political cycle between 1998 and 2002. At the initiative of his compatriot, who entered parliament on the national list, a committee was created to examine the implementation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Law. As president of the Public Procurement Monitoring Committee (KEB) of the Target Appropriation Environmental Fund (KAC), which finances environmental investments, he sought out municipalities and businessmen who had won the sewer bids to extort various benefits based on their relationships. policies.
Emőd’s example
In 1999, in Emőd, Borsod County, the small farmer’s homeland tried to extort 30% (HUF 139 million) of the subsidies provided by KAC for the sewerage of the surrounding settlements, and to involve his designated company in the execution of the investment, Csőszer Limited. As the people of Emőd refrained from completing the ukaz, he requested documents as the president of KEB and then sent his staff to the settlement.
The mayor did not give in to blackmail, in fact,
He secretly recorded the conversations with Zoltán Székely and the people sent by him.
Meanwhile, the contest was not won by Csőszer Kft., But Egút Kft., But this did not embarrass the politician either, because according to the recordings, he had already asked the winning company. Outsource to two companies you designate that would do a few hundred million jobs on commission.
Channels of Szigetszentmiklós
A year later, sewerage works started in Szigetszentmiklós, Pest county, where the head of the KEB also appeared. Taking all his influence, Székely managed to repeat the public procurement procedure, which had already been completed successfully. He then pressured the company that was carrying out the procedure to bring the construction to Csőszer Kft. His favorite company did not operate here either, so he wanted to persuade the winning PMVCS leader, Daniel Balla, through a broker to deliver the half the job, and even asked for HUF 30 million in cash. Balla informed Székely that the company could not manage the amount of 30 million,
by then Székely would have been satisfied with 20 million HUF.
And here came the twist that Székely did not expect: Balla denounced the attempted blackmail to the police and received tools from the prosecution to record the conversation. Székely chose the Gellért Square car park to deliver the money.
Not filming
On October 12, 2000, viewers in the vicinity of the Buda parking lot believed they were filming a category B action movie.
Balla appeared at the meeting with a microphone while prosecutors and policemen hid in the parking lot, who before the action decided to capture Szekler before he left because the area was busy and he could easily disappear.
Later, in the criminal proceedings, the officers involved in the action unanimously stated that they had seen the representative leave the Gellért hotel restaurant with Balla and get into Székely’s car. Balla placed the bag of money in the back seat, then got out of the vehicle and returned to the hotel. Investigators later certified Szekler. According to them, the fact of the money transfer proved the fact. Officers also said that the action was arranged by prosecutors, the police only provided the scene, their job was to monitor the car.
Szekler came up with a completely different story. As he said, he expected small farmer Balla to hand over documents that weighed him down on politicians. He was very surprised that there was a lot of money in the bag.
He was not embarrassed even when asked about the term “document”. It proved that it was not synonymous with a million florins. According to Balla, on the contrary
Szekler invented to say “documentation” instead of money.
The politician flatly denied it, after all, the businessman promised him incriminating evidence as a “document.” And the “percentage documents” mentioned by Balla were in support of small farmers. Thirty percent, he couldn’t tell.
Mental coercion
Szekler could not be detained due to his immunity, so he was released that day. Upon the news of the act, the leadership of the Minifundistas Party was immediately separated from him and the following day he was expelled from the party faction. The following week, at the proposal of Attorney General Péter Polt, Parliament waived his immunity. Meanwhile, the MP was not inactive either, as he proved his innocence in statements made to the press, claiming that the prosecution set him up using a SZDSZ contractor.
The representative has been harassed by the prosecution anyway.
He denounced the General Prosecutor’s Office of the capital on suspicion of 116 violations of the state secret, because according to his allegations, the Investigations Office of the Budapest General Prosecutor’s Office illegally carried out a house search, seized documents containing state secrets and service secrets . Székely also claimed that the prosecutor questioning him had used psychological coercion against him.
When the deputy was temporarily released from pre-trial detention, the politician under house arrest was not repeatedly found at his home by police officers who abandoned their control. Thus, due to a violation of the rules of house arrest, he was re-admitted shortly before the trial.
Six years in prison
The lawsuit, of great interest to citizens, began in December 2001 in the Metropolitan Court. During the procedure, Székely kept his previous position: there was no corruption, as president of the KEB he wanted to discover the irregularities experienced in the public procurement procedures. When he finished in the parking lot, he was expecting information from Bala about a series of environmental scams, and was more surprised that there were 20 million guilders in the bag.
However, the crown witness in the bribery case, Daniel Balla, testified against the MP. The court also accepted the sound recordings made by the blackmailed parties as conclusive evidence. In the trial sentence, Szekler was found guilty of bribery committed by two ordinary officials in breach of their duty, and
he was sentenced to six years in prison.
The Supreme Court of Second Instance approved the length of the sentence in December 2002, but ordered that it not be served in prison but, to a lesser extent, in prison. He also sentenced the accused to a fine of nine million guilders. As the year and a half previously included in the six-year term was included, Székely was released in 2005 after less than three years, with good behavior.
Szekler’s corruption scandal rocked the Independent Small Producers Party. There were more scandals and criminal trials against party members.
The party became very divided and did not even reach Parliament in the 2002 elections.
Top image: Budapest, April 10, 2002. The criminal trial of Zoltán Székely, a former party of small farmers, now an independent member of Parliament, continued in the Metropolitan Court. In the picture: Zoltán Székely arrives at the courtroom. MTI Photo: Tibor Rózsahegyi
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