TASZ denies reports of consultations with ombudsman’s office

Budapest, September 22 (MTI) – The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) did not hold consultations with the ombudsman’s office on the timing of a report about a scrapped needle-exchange programme in Budapest, the union’s drugs-policy expert said today.

Speaking to public television M1, Peter Sarosi denied allegations that TASZ wanted the ombudsman’s office to delay publication of a report critical of the 8th district local council. He said his NGO’s interest would have been to have the report published before the needle exchange programme was closed down in August.

A report in Friday’s Magyar Nemzet’s online edition suggested that someone from the office of Laszlo Szekely, the ombudsman for fundamental rights, had shared information in a report prepared by the office concerning the programme for drug addicts with the rights NGO before it was published.

Contrary to claims by daily Magyar Nemzet, correspondence published by the paper on Friday were actually between two staff members of the ombudsman’s office, Sarosi insisted, adding that he had not read the ombudsman’s report before it was officially published, nor did any of his colleagues at TASZ.

At the same time, he said it was natural for TASZ to maintain links with the ombudsman’s office, which had started investigating the attacks against the needle-exchange programme after the NGO submitted a report about them. Even after this report was submitted in November 2013, TASZ would keep the office updated about the developments in the case, he added.

It was also natural that TASZ would have been interested in learning about the publication date of the ombudsman’s findings because the NGO wanted to create publicity for it in the press, Sarosi said.

Head of the prime minister’s office Janos Lazar said that if Magyar Nemzet’s report turned out to be true then the ombudsman’s office will have lost all credibility and the ombudsman should resign immediately.

Gyorgy Rubovszky, the head of parliament’s justice committee, initiated a committee hearing for the ombudsman for fundamental rights and the committee approved the proposal with unanimous support by ruling party representetives. The hearing will take place next week.

Rubovszky, of the co-ruling Christian Democrats, told the committee that it is necessary to hear Szekely in order to maintain respect for the ombudsman’s office and make it clear whether the press reports were baseless or there were indeed glitches in the office’s operations.

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