Chief security advisor: Arrest of suspected terrorism financiers made possible by transit zone

If not for the transit zone near Hungary’s southern border, authorities would not have been able to arrest two migrants suspected of financing terrorism, the prime minister’s chief domestic security advisor said late on Thursday.

Speaking to public news channel M1 about Wednesday’s arrest by TEK counter-terrorism agents of an Iranian and a Turkish national in the Röszke transit zone, György Bakondi said had the two migrants been placed somewhere within Hungary’s borders, they would have left the country within 24 hours.

The two migrants submitted asylum applications legally and waited for the immigration authority to process their requests. They were identified while awaiting the decision on their applications in the transit zone.

Their arrest was helped by international information sharing, Bakondi said.

Stopping illegal migration and tightening border controls is crucial for public safety and national security, he said.

The view that migration works and is a positive phenomenon is contradicted by the fact that migration became the main issue in several European elections, Bakondi said, and in those elections voters made it clear that “things should not continue the way they are.”

The Csongrád County Chief Prosecutor’s Office on Friday officially launched criminal proceedings against the suspects and initiated their pre-trial detention, the office’s spokesman told MTI.

Investigators believe the suspects — a man and a woman — joined a group in 2009 and 2010, respectively, which according to international agreements and treaties is deemed a terrorist organisation, Ferenc Szanka said. The suspects are believed to have carried out logistical tasks for the organisation between 2010 and 2014. They received military training and supported the activities of the organisation through other means as well, he added.

Given the questions surrounding their identities and contradictions in their statements, the suspects are considered flight risks, Szanka said.

featured image: kormany.hu

Source: MTI