(MTI) – Police have taken into custody a government official suspected of taking bribes for immigration documents, public television M1 said on Thursday.
The National Protection Services, investigationg government corruption, had looked into reports which suspected the immigration officer to have granted Hungarian citizenship to foreigners who failed to meet the criteria on several occasions since last summer, M1’s news programme Hirado said.
Police have taken the official into custody at his workplace at a 10th district office of the Budapest Office of Immigration and Citizenship. The suspect admitted to taking bribes of 20,000-50,000 forints per case (EUR 64-161) to overlook the shortcomings of an applicant, for instance their failure to speak Hungarian. Police have set up an undercover trap and as a result arrested a 36-year-old Romanian woman, who had acted as an intermediary.
Akos Gergely Kovacs, a spokesman for the Budapest Prosecution Office, told Hirado that the suspect has been detained.
Photo: MTI – Zoltan Gergely Kelemen
