The sentences were handed down by a court of first instance and are appealable. Portik, seen as an underworld mobster, amassed a fortune as head of Energol Rt between 1994 and 2000. He was at one point Hungary’s mostwanted man.

Portik is known as one of the key players in illegal oil dealings of the 1990s. He was suspected of abetment in two murder cases: the killing of millionaire businessman József Prisztás in 1996, then the Aranykéz Street bombing of July 1998, in which four people were killed, including the presumed target, businessman Tamás Boros, who was a key witness in the oil mafia cases.

Police suspect that both cases are connected to oil dealings. His case came up again more recently when a parliamentary fact-finding committee decided to ask Portik, former secret-service chief Sándor Laborc and former secret-services minister György Szilvásy to appear at hearings to be held in connection with alleged meetings that took place between Laborc and Portik in 2008.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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