Jobbik: OLAF fails to ensure transparency of investigated affairs

The opposition Jobbik party accuses the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) of not ensuring public insight into the affairs it investigates, the party’s deputy group leader said on Monday.

Speaking at a Budapest press conference, Gábor Staudt said he had requested the release of six reports of unknown contents, all pertaining to concluded investigations and different Hungarian governments. All requests were rejected with “transparent excuses”, Staudt said.

The reasoning of the rejections was identical in all six cases, Staudt said, citing the protection of business interests and the interests of investigation. The latter, he said, is “complete nonsense” in the context of the requests, he said.

Jobbik is to turn to the European ombudsman, the ombudsman investigating complaints about European bodies, and possibly proceed to file a lawsuit with the European Court of Justice, Staudt said.

Jobbik obtained information from Hungary’s chief prosecutor earlier this year that the anti-fraud office has concluded probes into six investigations already closed by Hungarian authorities. Jobbik said in March that under EU law, OLAF had a duty to release the reports, given that no criminal proceedings had been launched in any of the cases.

Jobbik said in March they intended to release the reports to the public.

Source: MTI