Viktor Orbán’s brother detained in people-smuggling probe, Péter Magyar says
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said authorities have detained Viktor Orbán’s younger brother, Aron, 49, in a people-smuggling investigation. The national asset protection and recovery office (NVVH), working with police, said four people were detained and homes were searched in Budapest and Pest county. Police described the suspects as a woman and three men accused of human smuggling as part of a criminal conspiracy for financial gain.
According to Monday’s statement, they are suspected of helping Vietnamese citizens reach western Europe for several months in 2024. Authorities said the group charged visa applicants a “recruitment fee” at Hungary’s foreign missions in Vietnam and then shared the proceeds. In September the NVVH listed “selling political connections to obtain residence permits for employment” among the first four cases it planned to investigate.
Magyar, speaking in Berlin, said three former Orbán ministers are already in custody and that Orbán’s brother had that day gone into custody. Magyar, who ousted Orbán in an April election, created the NVVH to look into alleged graft during Orbán’s 16-year rule; the office is central to a campaign he has called “Operation Purgatory.” Orbán has denied those claims. Writing on Facebook, he called the detention political revenge, saying the aim was to eliminate a political opponent and build a one-party system, with himself as the target and his brother used as a tool. Separately, two former ministers from Orbán’s government and former central bank chief György Matolcsy have been arrested over graft allegations.
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