Court condemns police crackdown on Okotars headquarters

Budapest, January 29 (MTI) – The riot police violated the law when its anti-corruption unit searched the headquarters of the Okotars Foundation and the home of its head in September last year, a court in Budapest ruled on Thursday.

In its ruling the court said that at the time of the crackdown, charges of embezzlement or unathorised banking activities had not been established against Okotars, an NGO managing the distribution of grants from Norway’s Civil Fund in Hungary.

In a statement, Okotars welcomed the court decision but voiced concern over “political pressure under which the police carry out unlawful searches”, and called on the government not to use the authorities to exert such pressure.

In November last year, government control office Kehi initiated criminal proceedings on the grounds of repeated fraud, having found that employees and leaders of a consortium led by Okotars had broken conflict of interest rules when distributing funds.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters