Two former Hungarian ministers detained after parliament lifts their immunity

Two former Hungarian ministers, Balázs Hankó and Miklós Seszták, were detained on Monday after parliament lifted their immunity, allowing separate corruption investigations to proceed. Prosecutors suspect Hankó of misusing cultural funding and Seszták of taking bribes connected to public contracts. Both deny wrongdoing. The cases are the first graft investigations against senior figures in Viktor Orbán’s former government, according to The Guardian.

The National Assembly voted on 28 September to suspend the immunity of both former ministers, who remain members of parliament. It also lifted the immunity of Prime Minister Péter Magyar in a separate case. The parliamentary decisions cleared a procedural barrier to investigating the lawmakers; they did not determine whether any of them committed a crime.

The vote and detentions

Telex reported that the vote on Seszták’s immunity passed with 139 lawmakers in favour and none against or abstaining. Its coverage said Hankó’s immunity was also suspended by 139 votes. Fidesz and its Christian Democrat ally KDNP did not take part in the special sitting. The full assembly’s decision on Hankó followed an immunity committee meeting at which a motion to recommend suspension received three votes in favour and three abstentions, according to Telex.

Seszták went to the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office on Monday to give a statement and was detained there, Telex reported, citing his lawyer, Gábor Papp. Hankó was taken into custody late the same day, prosecutors said on Tuesday, according to The Guardian. The available reports do not establish whether either man has since been formally charged or whether a court has ordered further detention.

Separate allegations

Hankó has rejected the accusation. Shortly before his detention, he said in a video carried on Orbán’s Facebook page that his conscience was clear and called the case a political show trial, The Guardian reported. His denial is a direct challenge to the prosecutors’ account, and no finding of guilt is established by the parliamentary vote or his detention.

Seszták, a KDNP lawmaker, served as minister for national development from 2014 to 2018. Telex reported that prosecutors suspect he accepted bribes from construction contractors while in office. It said prosecutors alleged that Seszták and Norbert Szivek, then head of the Hungarian National Asset Management Company, obtained 11 billion forints in unlawful benefits. That figure concerns the arrangement described in Telex’s account.

The Guardian reported a broader allegation that Seszták accepted more than 12 billion forints, about €32.6 million, in bribes and kickbacks linked to vehicle procurement and public construction projects. Its account said the bus procurement inquiry concerns secondhand vehicles allegedly bought at inflated prices. The two reported amounts should be read in the context of their respective allegations; the available accounts do not establish a single reconciled total.

Seszták denies the allegations. Telex quoted him as saying when prosecutors sought to lift his immunity: ‘I have not committed any crime, and I am not aware of any crime having been committed.’ His detention permits the investigation to continue; it is not a verdict on the accusations against him.

A wider political test

Magyar’s Tisza party won April’s election after promising to investigate alleged corruption and abuse of office during Orbán’s 16 years in power, The Guardian reported. Magyar welcomed Monday’s developments as a sign of equality before the law. Orbán has repeatedly denied allowing widespread corruption or theft of public money during his time as prime minister. The competing accounts underscore the political stakes of cases that prosecutors must still establish through legal proceedings.

Magyar’s own immunity was lifted over a separate allegation arising from a 2024 nightclub incident involving a phone taken from a man filming him and thrown into the Danube. He asked for his immunity to be suspended, denied that his conduct amounted to theft and called the case a sham, according to The Guardian. That allegation is distinct from the public funding and bribery investigations involving Hankó and Seszták.

The next legal steps for the former ministers remain unclear in the reviewed reports: they do not establish formal charges, a court decision on continued detention or an outcome in either case. For now, parliament’s action and the detentions mark the start of a new stage in the investigations, while the underlying allegations remain contested.