National security committee head queries state leaders about possible links between Azeri funds, extradition

The head of parliament’s national security committee Zsolt Molnár, of the opposition Socialists, has asked the interior minister and heads of the national security services, the central bank and the tax office about possible links between the 2012 extradition of an Azeri soldier who had killed an Armenian in Hungary and the alleged transfer of funds to a Hungarian bank account. 

At the latest national security committee meeting,

the “ruling majority blocked” the launch of a fact-finding investigation about the issue,

he told a press conference. For this reason, Molnár said he had asked Interior Minister Sándor Pintér in writing about the extradition and its international aspects, the actions of the Constitution Protection Office and the bank accounts reported by the press.

After the Azeri soldier’s extradition, various theories surfaced about why he had been extradited “under scandalous circumstances”, Molnár said.

The case tainted Hungary’s international reputation and brought an end to Hungarian-Armenian diplomatic relations. If it is now revealed that there were “millions of dollars rolling in” in the background, then “we are facing another scandalous case of suspected corruption”, he added.