Men arrested by counter-terrorism unit wanted to “execute” government member – UPDATE

Budapest, November 27 (MTI) – Two men arrested by Hungary’s counter-terrorism unit TEK last weekend planned to “execute” a government member, interior ministry state secretary Laszlo Tasnadi said. Hungary’s counter-terrorism unit TEK has so far not uncovered any evidence to suggest that the two cases in which it made arrests last weekend are related, although further investigations need to be carried out to completely rule out any links, the interior minister said on Friday.

The suspects are extremists belonging to a loosely organised group that calls itself an “army”, Tasnadi told a press conference without disclosing further details.

Interior Minister Sandor Pinter cited the suspects as saying that weapons must be used to force the government to “surrender its power”.

Update

No indication of link between two TEK arrests, says Pinter

Sandor Pinter told a press conference that last week TEK received information that unknown suspects were headed towards Budapest in a Fiat Tipo carrying “unstable” second world war explosives that had been buried underground for decades.

TEK received this information one day after it received word of a plot to carry out an attack against a protected person in Hungary. The information about the car and its contents turned out to be correct, Pinter said. TEK arrested the four men travelling in the car.

The minister said the counter-terrorism unit had no choice but to arrest the suspects, as it had to make sure to prevent the explosives from reaching Budapest where it could have killed or injured many people.

Regarding the other case which led to the arrest of two people who had planned to “execute” a government member, Pinter said TEK used secret services methods to track them down.

TEK said earlier this week that the two suspects had live firearms and ammunition and silencers in their vehicle.

The minister cited the suspects as saying that weapons must be used to force the government to “surrender its power”. He said the suspects referred to legislators as “sheep, criminals and traitors who must be executed”, adding that they considered themselves to be revolutionaries.

Interior ministry state secretary Laszlo Tasnadi told the press conference that the suspects are extremists belonging to a loosely organised group that calls itself an “army”.

Responding to a question from MTI, the state secretary said he does not understand why the Budapest Regional Court did not place the four people carrying second world war explosives in pre-trial detention, adding, however that he respects the court’s decision.

Pinter criticised the way the arrests were covered in the media, saying that the press had lumped the two cases together. He said the reason why law enforcement had not elaborated on details about the two cases up until now was because they did not want to compromise the investigations.

Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos on Friday expressed gratitude to the interior ministry and TEK for their effors in protecting the capital. He criticised opposition groups for attempting to use cases like the arrests for “cheap political gain”.

On Thursday, the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) party said it would file a complaint against TEK for “deliberately misleading” the public by implying that it had apprehended Islamic extremists. Lawmaker Agnes Vadai said that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “private army had failed” and that TEK chief Janos Hajdu had embarrassed Hungarian police officers.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters