Americans asked to keep the arrest of the Hungarian Ambassador involved in child porn scandal in secret

Gábor Kaleta’s online activity was observed for long by an American government body specialised on cybercrime. They found him while they were uncovering an international paedophile network.

According to index.hu, the American institution informed the Hungarian Information Office (Információs Hivatal, IH), a non-military intelligence agency, on 2019 spring because IH is their partner agency in such cases. The news site says based on non-confirmed information that the secret American investigation was in connection with another similar case conducted by the Spanish authorities and the Europol concerning Europe.

The American institution observed the online activity of Gábor Kaleta, the former Hungarian Ambassador to Peru, for long and by the time they informed the IH they already uncovered the network. This means that, by then, the Americans had enough evidence to start an open investigation, arrest Kaleta and start a procedure against him. According to index.hu, Kaleta was arrested, but he was already released.

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Security officers said to index.hu that

the Ambassador was taken home by agents of the IH

instead of the Counter-Terrorism Centre (TEK). That is because they are in a partnership with the American authorities and the IH is responsible for the protection of the so-called “colonies” meaning the embassies of the country and those who serve there.

According to index.hu, the American authorities asked the Hungarian ones to operate in secret and not to announce the arrest of the Hungarian ambassador for the sake of the international investigation in the issue. Based on a foreign ministry official, the ministry would never defend a diplomat getting involved in such an issue. Furthermore, Mr Kaleta was a career diplomat so

there were no political reasons why Fidesz should have defended him.

When the IH took Kaleta home, they handed him over to the police which did not have a difficult task since the American authorities already provided the evidence with which they could prosecute the former ambassador.

According to index.hu, the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs remained silent in the issue because that was the request of the Americans. It is another question why the Budapest Prosecutor’s Office did not say anything in the issue when the investigation phase was over.

Source: index.hu