The Hungarian National Security Committee has partially released its report into IT specialists affiliated with the opposition Tisza Party. According to the document, the specialists maintained regular contact with the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest and had earlier links to Ukrainian state intelligence services.
Authorities have been monitoring one of the individuals, H.D., for years due to his involvement with foreign intelligence agencies, while his colleague, M.T., faced prior criminal proceedings related to computer fraud and IT abuse.
During police searches of their homes, data storage devices and military-grade equipment were seized. Investigators suspect the two individuals of manufacturing unlicensed military equipment, while one of them was allegedly planning to acquire tools for online sexual exploitation.
The revelations follow allegations that opposition journalist Szabolcs Panyi collaborated with a foreign European Union-based intelligence agency to wiretap Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó. The journalist reportedly used transcripts of private calls to accuse Szijjártó of discussing sensitive Brussels topics with Russian officials.
András Schiffer, former head of the LMP faction in the Hungarian parliament reacted in a social media post, saying
Excuse me, how can you legally access the phone conversations of two foreign ministers?
Máté Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz faction stated
Today, the foreign-funded news portal Direkt36 has come to the defense of the Tisza Party’s IT specialists trained in Ukraine, falsely framing their criminal case as an attack against the Tisza Party.
He called the investigation “an unprecedented Ukrainian secret service operation.”
