Suspects caught by TEK not Islamic extremists, says head of national security committee

Budapest, November 25 (MTI) – Suspects apprehended by counter-terrorism force TEK last weekend have no affiliation with Islamic extremist groups, Zsolt Molnar, head of parliament’s national security committee, said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday TEK said it apprehended six people, members of gangs in possession of automatic weapons, explosives and ammunition last weekend. It also confirmed increased security provided to protected persons until the end of the current series of counter-terrorism operations.

Speaking after a national security committee meeting held behind closed doors, Molnar said TEK chief Janos Hajdu gave committee members a detailed account of the operation. Noting that details about the operation were confidential, Molnar confirmed that the suspects were not part of a cell of Islamic State militants. The gang members were extremists “with troubling ideologies,” he said.

Bernadett Szel of LMP, Adam Mirkoczki of Jobbik party, and Szilard Nemeth, the committee’s vice chairman for Fidesz, all expressed thanks for TEK’s operation and said the counter-terrorism unit had prevented “a serious crime”.

Mirkoczki said the operation was not a mere “PR stunt” by TEK nor had media reports about it been exaggerated.

Committee members were also briefed on Hungary and Europe’s security situation by interior ministry staff and representatives of the secret services. MPs said they discussed the implications of Tuesday’s downing a Russian fighter jet by Turkey as well as the Paris attacks.

On the downing of the Russian warplane, Szel said Hungary should assist in clearing up the incident arguing that chaos only favours the terrorists. On the topic of the Paris attacks, she said it was proof of the emergence of “a new form of terrorism” and that stopping it will require that intelligence agencies cooperate more efficiently.

Szilard Nemeth said the briefing had made it clear that illegal migration and terrorism “go hand in hand”. He said it was not just the current wave of migrants but earlier waves as well that are responsible for terrorism, arguing that there were second and third-generation immigrants among the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks. He said the attacks could have been prevented if the European Union and certain EU leaders had managed migration “on a different level”.

Nemeth noted that the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks had been on the radar of French intelligence services. He said intelligence services are doing their job as they are supposed to but “there are some irresponsible politicians who don’t listen to them”. The Hungarian government on the other hand listens to such briefings, he added.

He said it has become clear that the government made the right choice when it decided to launch a national consultation on the link between migration and terrorism and then instilled the measures necessary to protect the country.

Molnar said the threat of terrorism has not risen either in Budapest or in Hungary in general, adding, however that no European country is completely safe as there is a constant race to foil potential terror plots.

He said the security situation justifies his party’s call for changes to the penal code to introduce sanctions for such activities as the promotion of terrorism, joining terrorist groups or recruiting members for them.

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