Máté Kocsis, the head of the committee delegated by the ruling Fidesz party, said governing party members of the committee would file a complaint against Mesterházy for violating his obligation to answer the committee’s questions on the case in person. In a letter addressed to the committee, Mesterházy said that parliament’s national security committee had “overstepped a line” when it assigned a fact-finding committee to the case last Tuesday and that it was using the case for campaign gains.

Mesterházy said he did not have any more information on former Socialist official Gábor Simon’s illicit funds than the authorities do, and suggestions otherwise are “absurd and deceitful”.

Simon quit his post as the Socialist party’s deputy leader and gave up his seat in parliament in February 2014, after reports that he had undeclared assets worth 240 million forints (EUR 780,000) on an Austrian bank account.

He has also been accused of using false passports to open accounts with banks. Ruling party Fidesz has repeatedly called on Mesterházy to reveal what he knew about Simon’s hidden funds.

Daily Magyar Nemzet suggested in an article published on Wednesday that Mesterházy and former Socialist leader and prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány had known about Simon’s funds. The accusations have been denied on the left.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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