Court finds former MDF politicians guilty in UD case

Budapest, March 18 (MTI) – A Budapest court on Friday upheld an earlier ruling and found former leader of the conservative MDF party Ibolya Dávid and a senior official of the party guilty of coercion.

The court issued Ibolya Dávid and Károly Herényi a reprimand in the case involving private intelligence firm UD Zrt.

The case dates back to 2008, when Dávid told a press conference that people associated with UD had attempted to interfere with internal affairs of her former party. She released secretly recorded telephone conversations as evidence. The persons Dávid named at the time sued her, claiming infringement of personal privacy. The public prosecutor then pressed charges against the party leader and others involved.

According to the charges, David and Herenyi used the recordings to threaten Kornel Almassy, MDF’s deputy leader, who then stepped back from an attempt to wrest control of the party.

Before Almassy’s leadership bid, MDF under Dávid had been fending off an attempt by the opposition Fidesz party to form an alliance in the hope of unseating the ruling Socialist Party in the 2006 general election.

It never came to light how Dávid obtained the recording she submitted as evidence. In the recording, UD employee Janos Toth discusses with OTP Bank CEO-president Sándor Csányi a proposal to collect “dirt” on Dávid with a view to forcing her to step down as party leader. The proposal was allegedly made by a friend and advisor of Almássy’s called András Tombor.

The court found that Dávid and Herényi, with some other people present, agreed to present Tombor with the recording of the conversation between Csányi and Tóth with a view to pressurising Almássy to step down. In the end the recordings were revealed to the public and Almássy resigned.

Photo: MTI

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