Chief prosecutor initiates suspending two lawmakers’ immunity

Chief Public Prosecutor Péter Polt has initiated the suspension of the parliamentary immunity of two lawmakers in connection with a legal case involving a Budapest-based charity organisation and national tax authority NAV, Polt’s office said on Tuesday.

The case concerns an ongoing criminal investigation under which NAV’s officers conducted a search on suspected large-scale budgetary fraud at the charity’s Budapest premises in the 8th district in February 2022. The NAV officers informed the charity’s leader that under the law on criminal proceedings, beside the NAV officers and notary, only him and his legal representative were authorised to be present at the scene during the search, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

It said in the statement, that the charity’s leader had however entered the premises accompanied by journalists and had called on the two lawmakers present at the scene, Zita Gurmai of the Socialists and Momentum MEP Anna Donáth “to prevent NAV officers from conducting their lawful procedure”. The two politicians “stopped their action only when police officers arrived at the scene”, said the statement.