Serbian border: bribery charges against 49 senior customs officials

The Szeged regional prosecutor’s office has brought charges of graft against 49 senior customs officials who regularly sought cash bribes from foreign nationals at Hungary’s Röszke border crossing with Serbia, a senior prosecution official said on Wednesday.

According to the indictment, the customs officials commonly took bribes worth between 5 and 100 euros from foreign travellers, bus and truck drivers between October 2017 and May 2018, Imre Keresztes, the head of the central investigating prosecutor’s office said.

Bribes were collected by the customs official on duty and stored before being distributed twice a month, generally by the head and deputy head of the department, Keresztes said in a statement.

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The case involves altogether 4,356 instances, he said, noting that one of the suspects accepted cash on 66 occasions in a single day.

Forty-eight of the suspects have been dismissed from their jobs and all 49 suspects are on probation.

If convicted, they each face up to 15 years in prison.

Source: MTI