2014. szeptember 30., kedd

The legend of the nokia-box and the pure truth - part 6


A news came to light in the Hungarian media in March 2010 which shocked the whole country. This served the proof to the ones who criticize the Gyurcsány-government that the socialist-liberal administration is rotten to the core. This prejudice has been created successfully by the right-wing media.


Summarizing my standpoint regarding the confessions of the accused of IV order it can be stated that the prosecutor raised accusation against Hagyó only upon the statement of Balogh which is full with contradictions and discrepancies. The prosecutor found the above statements profound despite of the fact that the contradictions between the confessions have to be clarified due to the relevant regulation and stipulation of the criminal procedure act. It is, as shown above, is still missing for some reason.
We cannot talk about evidences which would serve the basis of the prosecution. According to the rules of criminal procedure the fact which is not proven shall not be considered against the accused.


The failed recognition of the alleged eyewitness 

Zsolt Balogh testified on 23rd August 2010 that Hagyó sent him to Gödöllő to his girlfriend, Krisztina T. where he instructed Balogh to give him 15 Million per year. Due to the confession of the accused of IV order that Hagyó told him that there are two reasons: the first on is that he works with a bunch of fellows who are not registered employees but they have to be financed and the other reason was that there is a nursing home at Csepel and he collected the money to support it". Here, again he accuses Hagyó that he threatened him with the disclosure of the improper CC Soft statement on completion.

Krisztina T.  stayed in the second room when Balogh and Hagyó met so she could detect only the tone of the conversation tone detected, she did not hear what was said. That is the reason why she said that the conversation took place in a calm, polite manner and it did not seem to be such a violent persuasion or coercion.

Miklós Hagyó’s girlfriend, Krisztina T.’s photo was shown to Zsolt Balogh during the investigation. It is strange that the accused of IV order did not recognize Krisztina T. however he stated that they met during the meeting in Gödöllő. It is difficult to understand that someone with strong emotions in connection with a memory can provide a detailed report but continuously failed to recognize a person taking part in that event.

On this basis, it is concluded that Zsolt Balogh’s statement is improper to confirm the II point of the indictment and no additional evidences arisen. In the light of this it is incomprehensible that how the prosecutor raised claim. Why a person was held in pre-trial detention, exposed to severe testing whose guilt is not supported by anything?

2014. szeptember 23., kedd

The legend of the nokia-box and the pure truth - part 5

A news came to light in the Hungarian media in March 2010 which shocked the whole country. This served the proof to the ones who criticize the Gyurcsány-government that the socialist-liberal administration is rotten to the core. This prejudice has been created successfully by the right-wing media.


Contradictions in the confessions of the accused of IV order

Before proceeding to the contradictions among the confessions of Zsolt Balogh I would like to draw the reader’s attention to an interesting event of the investigation. Before the arrest of Miklós Hagyó he indicated to the investigating authority on 11th May 2010 that he shall be at their disposal, he lives in his residency and gave all of his availabilities. In spite of this the police failed to interrogate Hagyó before his arrest of 14th May 2010.


Zsolt Balogh also offered his testimony to the investigating authority in the first half of October 2009 howver he was interrogation only in February 2010 firstly as witness and then as a suspect as stated in the letter dated on 8th April 2011 and addressed to the K.D. Marshall.


2014. szeptember 8., hétfő

Gábor Tóth - Who managed the BKV investigation

Gábor Tóth

Who managed the BKV investigation



Gábor Tóth was born in Kalocsa, October 28, 1966. He graduated in Bólyai János Military Technical College then he completed the criminal academic expertise in the Police Officer College and ELTE Faculty of law. He started his career as a military prosecutor investigator in 1988; he served in five different districts in Budapest as a detective, deputy chief of investigation division, deputy chief of criminal division and as the chief of the police station between 1990 and 2003. He had been working as the criminal deputy chief of the Chief of Metropolitan Police of Budapest between 2003 and 2007. (The Metro Police Chief couple are expecting a baby – Vevet, 02.02.2008)

The legend of the Nokia-box and the pure truth - part 4


A news came to light in the Hungarian media in March 2010 which shocked the whole country. This served the proof to the ones who criticize the Gyurcsány-government that the socialist-liberal administration is rotten to the core. This prejudice has been created successfully by the right-wing media.
Zsolt Balogh

An internal investigation at the BKV- An unused documentary evidence

Zsolt Balogh made his statement on 24th February 2010 at a police station in connection with the II point of the indictment as follows: BKV concluded an agreement in the summer or spring of 2008 with Synergon Nyrt. being the winner in the central procurement in order to supply Microsoft software.


2014. szeptember 2., kedd

The legend of the Nokia-box and the pure truth - part 3

A news came to light in the Hungarian media in March 2010 which shocked the whole country. This served the proof to the ones who criticize the Gyurcsány-government that the socialist-liberal administration is rotten to the core. This prejudice has been created successfully by the right-wing media.



The indictment was characterized in the article of HVG journal as “carelessly supported political pamphlet” since you cannot find a single document from the tens of thousands of pages which could support the accusation of crimes committed in criminal organization. There is not a slightest evidence or circumstance beside the preamble of the indictment that would lead to the allegation of some Mob-crime. the journalist writes an example that due to the standpoint of the indictment “Ernő Mesterházy mediates  the interests of the companies connected to the Lord Mayor toward BKV”. The method of how he did, who are the circles of Demszky (Lord Mayor at that time) and the prosecutor did not initiate the interrogation of Demszky Gábor as witness. There are only three crimes with which the prosecutor accuses Hagyó out of the fifty ones listed in the indictment. The evidences are mostly attestations by witnesses which are rarely incriminating. For instance János Pálocska – a company owner connected to BKV – based his attestation on rumors, second-hand information.


2014. augusztus 15., péntek

The legend of the Nokia-box and the pure truth -part 2

A news came to light in the Hungarian media in March 2010 which shocked the whole country. This served the proof to the ones who criticize the Gyurcsány-government that the socialist-liberal administration is rotten to the core. This prejudice has been created successfully by the right-wing media.


The Act LI of 2006 on the amendment of the criminal procedure act (Novell) stipulates the notion of legal prosecution. However the jurisprudence defines the legal prosecution otherwise; some states that the principle of prosecution requires the definite criterions of the legal prosecution. 

2014. augusztus 7., csütörtök

The legend of the Nokia-box and the pure truth - part 1.


A news came to light in the Hungarian media in March 2010 which shocked the whole country. This served the proof to the ones who criticize the Gyurcsány-government that the socialist-liberal administration is rotten to the core. This prejudice has been created successfully by the right-wing media.  


2014. április 20., vasárnap

Hagyó Files


The primary purpose of this blog is to serve as a source of information on the BKV case in Budapest, Hungary. The “Hagyó Case” as it commonly known in Hungary due the main defendant, Hagyó Miklós, will be presented and hopefully discussed through this blog either in blog-style articles, more journalistic compositions, or case-related documents. The case has garnered much domestic and international attention due to the high-profile defendants who were an alleged criminal network in the midst of Hungary’s on-going transition from a repressive communist regime into a transparent democracy in today’s highly globalized stage. If you are interested and would like to follow our updates, please register via the RSS feed!

The mafia charges of billions of forints have melted




In most cases because of the absence of crime police have terminated the criminal procedures initiated after the change of administration in 2010. stipulations of international treaties. In several cases the courts were unable to find proved the accusation of the existence of some kind of mafia entity. Tax payers are to bear the 100 billion Hungarian Forints which is contested in the lawsuit connected to Sukoro investment.


Miklós Hagyó former socialist Deputy Mayor was shocked when he saw himself in a picture in a FIDESZ campaign poster on the streets. In those posters he is not illustrated in a good manner at all. Although he has been retired for 4 years and he has no intention to return to the public life. Our newspaper went to what happened with those members of the public against whose criminal procedures were initiated – not exempted from political overtones – during 2009 and 2010. Which is the present status of these procedures, is there any decision in force, the accused are released or sentenced?

Hagyo-Miklos-nyito-foto-MTI.jpg

INDEMNITY

We were looking for Miklós Hagyó to take a statement about how he has lived through the past years, what lesson was stabbed from his position of Deputy Mayor, what he would do in another way and what is the truth about the alleged millions carried in a Nokia box. However – via his legal representative – he said that he does not intend to say a word. “Once you’re bitten by a snake you fear the lizard as well.” – reflected András Kádár attorney-at-law why his defendant rejects to comment. It is known from Hagyó that he lives secluded in the embrace of his family. After his arrest his physical condition was broken down, he lost 37 kg weight. Now he has been waiting for the end of the criminal proceedings regarding the BKV case. Miklós Hagyó was arrested on 14th new Parliament, almost at the same time when his former socialist party co-‘s took their oath. Although he had indicated – via his legal representative – to the authority weeks ago that it is his full intention to cooperate with them, special police force knocked on his house’s door. He opened the door then the special force pushed him against the wall, handcuffed and led him in the crossfire of the media. The video had been shown for weeks by the public media. Meanwhile Hagyó’s condition was getting worse and worse in the correctional institution, he spent more than 4 months in a guard house where the available space was 3,52 square meter per person, furniture included. Then he spent 4 months in another place where the ratio was 4,7 square meter per person. His lawyers wanted him to be placed to home guard however they also referred to and emphasized a procedural anomaly: the authorities failed to determine the real reason of the arrest. Also the European Court of Human Rights did not find everything fine since the Court judged EUR 20,000 indemnity in favor of Miklós Hagyó in 2013. As we know Hungary has already paid this amount to him. 

2014. április 2., szerda

The Fidesz had been curing – It could have been prevent the lot of penalty

Really it should have been only this, and then the Hungarian tax-payers shouldn’t have to pay the penalty damages because of the case transferences? It’s a public joke.



We can start this story from far away, but there is no sense for the enumeration. They will do this a few years later on the law schools, when probably the purpose which allusive the special criminal cases and which is supported by the 2/3 government will be a curriculum in there.


This made it happen that Tünde Handó, who was newly elected president of the National Judicial Office in the January of 2012, could appoint court which are equal in scope but it’s diverge than the general cognizance courts in politically tender cases, like the Sukoró’s plot change, the BKV case, or the trial of György Hunvald. The National Judiciary Office had the same charge from lot of sides, that they appoint these kinds of cases according a sin which countryside court has a stricter or more extenuate judgment, according to the earlier cases.

Let’s go to Kecskemét

The BKV case should had been trial in the Budapest Court, but Tünde Handó appointed it to the Kecskemét Court in the February of 2012, with the allude to the workloads of the other court. Against the decision the concerned people couldn’t make an appeal but they made a constitutional complaint and they asked for suspend of the process. All of this didn’t block the process, the appointed judge started the case in the Kecskemét Court. She questioned all the defendants and almost all of the witnesses. Roughly after 50 days of hearings December of 2013 came, when the Constitutional Court in their decision established that the laws about the case transferences were repealed by the Parliament and it’s come up against the Basic Law and against the international rules. 


2014. március 29., szombat

We had a selfie with Hagyó on the Subway line 4!



Today Budapest is celebrating the Subway line 4 with a surprising party exemption. The whole media, competent and amateurs, oranges and red, passengers and BKV workers exalt the final form of the gigantic project.


And true what is true, it’s just enough to go down to one-one station to be completely floored for its own world and for the visions from the forms, shapes, devices and surfaces. I1m not going to even gush more about it, see it if you can.

We thought that we will ask a person on the presentation day, who was concerned in a more deeply way into the project just to cut the strip. Thus through his lawyer we contacted Miklós Hagyó former socialist deputy lord mayor, who – although didn’t cut a stripe today – was responsible for the investment during his office period and (since then it turned out that wrongly, without a reason, with fake cause) he was in pre-trial detention for it.


Miklós Hagyó in the beginning – kept himself for his muteness in the last 4 years – didn’t want to declare, however he called us back during the day to send a short message to everyone who was concerned with the building operations. He did it in this way without any verbal comment:





„From the people who created the idea to the person who pull the last screw, we, thousands of Hungarian people can be proud and we can thank to God that a big building operation like this came true uniquely in the world without any accident.”

2014. március 28., péntek

They can start the Hagyó case from the beginning



There is still no owner for the notorious crimes, for the BKV scandal, for the 15 billion MVM misappropriations or for the Sukoró case. All of these were started in the countryside, but after the decision from the Constitutional Court about the case transferences, the cases had been stopped, because the courts in the countryside didn’t keep being competent anymore. 

The special cases can be stopped for maximum 3 months without consequences. By this time we already overstepped the 3 months round, so it seems like that now it doesn’t matter anymore that what court will be the competent, they have to start over all the special cases.

On 13th of June, 2012 the criminal suit of Miklós Hagyó, former deputy lord mayor and his fellows started on the Kecskemét Tribunal. Photo: Huszti István / Index

The arguments about the unclaimed notorious cases came so far for now that – it seems like – that it sure that they have to start them over, independently from that fact that in which court will the cases continue. These are those difficult, big cases what the transferred to countryside court because of the workload of the Budapest’s court: such as the BKV scandal which was transferred to Kecskemét, or the former MVM leader, István Kocsis’s 15 billion misappropriation case which started in Kaposvár. The status of these cases fell over when the Constitutional Court in the beginning of December said that the former law which was the basis of the case transferences was unconstitutional and it had been already repealed. First it said that the decision of the Constitutional Court doesn’t influence the pending cases because the Constitutional Court rejected the proposal when they asked the extermination of the dockets of the transferences. 

2014. március 6., csütörtök

Hungary, An Election in Question, Part 5


This is the final post of a new series from my Princeton colleague Kim Lane Scheppele, head of Princeton’s Law and Public Affairs Program.
Hungary: An Election in Question
Part V: The Unequal Campaign
Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton
24 February 2014

Kim Lane Scheppele

Officially, the election campaign in Hungary starts 50 days before an election, so the race began in earnest on 15 February for the 6 April election. Once the campaign period starts in Hungary, special rules ensure that all parties are treated equally.
But as Anatole France once said, “In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread.”

We’ve already seen how the new system in Hungary was designed to push opposition parties into an uncomfortable alliance and to require they win by a substantial margin to win at all. And we’ve seen how the system of minority and foreign voting has opened the doors for Fidesz voters while closing them to those who would vote for opposition parties.
Not surprisingly, the rules for the campaign period itself also have a similar logic.

2014. március 5., szerda

How Did Hungary’s Election Become a Circus?



By DANNY HAKIMMARCH 1, 2014


BUDAPEST — THE most visible poster on the streets here is not the one advertising the Deep Purple concert at the Papp Laszlo Sportarena. And it’s not the one for “Balkan Kobra,” a theatrical comedy featuring a stubbly hero sporting tight jeans and a Kalashnikov. And it’s definitely not the one for the Budapest Dance Festival.

Instead, it’s the one that shows three or four guys wearing neckties standing in a police lineup, alongside a clown. In one of the more ubiquitous versions of the poster, two of the men are former left-wing prime ministers of Hungary. A third is Attila Mesterhazy, president of the country’s Socialist Party and a current candidate for prime minister in the coming election in April. The fourth is Miklos Hagyo, the former left-wing deputy mayor of Budapest, who is currently the subject of a corruption trial.



An ad from a pro-ruling-party group features opposition politicians, a clown and the tag line “They Don’t Deserve Another Chance.” Credit Akos Stiller for The New York Times

The men, and the clown, appear above the slogan “They Don’t Deserve Another Chance.”

Given that political advertising has been sharply and abruptly curtailed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz Party, the pre-eminence of a political ad — on billboards, lampposts and the sides of buses — might seem surprising. But Fidesz, which has been widely criticized as taking Hungary in an autocratic direction since taking power in 2010, has become adept at controlling the message. It has rewritten the state’s Constitution, come to dominate all branches of government and held increasing sway over the news media. Meanwhile, according to the International Monetary Fund, Hungary’s economic output is not expected to return to 2008 levels until 2017.

2014. február 18., kedd

Civil Unity Forum (CÖF) – flyer for almost 40 million



The smear „clown” campaign against the leaders of the opposition united leaders can be even 100 million forint for the CÖF-CÖKA organization which organized the Peace Marches. For the first wave the country was infested with huge billboards, and on the last week they started to spread their 16 pages colored publication in 4 million copies. 


This is shows the opposition leaders in the clown composition which is well known from the billboards. The cost of the campaign is covert by the CÖF-CÖKA. As they still debtor with the cost of the „They ruined the country together” action in the end of 2012 which is focused on Gyurcsány and Bajnai.




Lot of people march with the CÖF, but the supporter is little  PICTURE: ISTVÁN BIELIK


Because in the name of the „civilian” László Csizmadia answered to our paper for the question about their present cost he answered that „we don’t declare in this cases because we said it more times that we are settling and we can be settle”, the Népszava tried to guess the costs for the campaign books. It made us harder that the Hungarian Post Office Ltd. didn’t want to tell us the cost of the spread.

On their website according to their official rate is net 4,5 forint to allocate to the target the advertisement publications, which would mean gross 22,86 million forint, but the Post Office reported that this price is only available for the ”public senders”. (According to our information the Post Office asks from the parties a near tariff as the public senders tariff, which based on the amount in 2010 it got 3,5-4 million „campaign message” to the houses – the editor.) If the state company wouldn’t give a preference for the CÖF-CÖKA which is campaigning for the Fidesz then it would cost 14-16 million forints. 


2014. február 9., vasárnap

Free and fair election? It doesn’t look promising


It was on August 6, 2011 that I reported on Hillary Clinton’s apprehensions about the state of democracy in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. She talked about the two-thirds majority that “offers the temptation to overreach. It can … allow for important checks and balances to be swept aside, and valid objections from citizens to be ignored.” 

This is why “the United States and other friends” are urging Hungary to pay special attention to the drafting of the cardinal laws. “The most important of these will pertain to an independent media and judiciary, and free and fair elections. The system cannot be permanently tilted to favor one party or another.”

Elsewhere, also during the same trip to Hungary, in a conversation with leaders of the opposition she reiterated that holding “free and fair elections” is a prerequisite of democracy. If that principle is violated, we can no longer talk about a free and democratic society. She practically told the opposition leaders: let’s see what happens. Until then, we cannot do anything.

Well, the national election will be held on April 6, 2014, and it can easily happen that it will be anything but fair. It will be a system that is “tilted to favor one party.” Foreign observers will most likely not find wholesale cheating, although even that possibility cannot be entirely ruled out, but the constantly changing laws over the past year or so are destined to tilt the playing field in favor of the governing party.


Here are a few worrisome signs that Viktor Orbán is planning to determine the outcome of the election through rules and regulations that are disadvantageous to the opposition. Let’s start with the introduction of a system that forced all the opposition forces to form a united front against one highly centralized and monolithic party, Fidesz. Getting the divergent parties to agree to a common platform took a long time and gave an undue advantage to Fidesz. Second, the redrawing of the electoral districts greatly favors Fidesz. Third, according to the Hungarian constitution the president alone can determine the date of the election within a certain time frame and naturally János Áder, a former Fidesz politician, picked the earliest possible date, which favors the government party. He did that despite the fact that a later date would have allowed the government to hold the national and European parliamentary elections at the same time. Another reason for not holding the two elections simultaneously was Fidesz’s desire to have a low turnout at both elections. A low turnout favors Fidesz.

2014. február 1., szombat

The Hagyó case had been replaced to Budapest – Népszava article


In the criminal procedure of the former deputy lord mayor and his 14 associates in the warrant from the Kecskemét Tribunal on December 6th, 2013, they established the lack of cognizance and they placed the case to the Budapest Tribunal – announced the Kecskemét Tribunal. 





As it known: Handó Tünde, the president of the National Judicial Office (the wife of József Szájer, who is a Fidesz representative of the European Parliament) in 2012 appointed the Kecskemét Tribunal for the continuance of the process. In the meantime the provisions of measures were eliminated by the Constitutional Court which was the basis of the appointment – with the references of collision with the basic law offence and international contracts.