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2,645 People Under Surveillance by Secret Services in Hungary Since 2010

• 14 Jun 2023 8:56 AM
• Hungary Around the Clock

Courts issued an average of 20 permits a month to the secret services to monitor people this year, the Capital Court informed HVG in response to the weekly’s request for data of public interest.

The monthly average of such permits has risen from 14 in 2021 to 21 last year.

The secret services requested permits to monitor 83 people in 41 cases in the first four months of this year. All were approved.

Some 2,645 people have been under surveillance for national security reasons since the beginning of 2010 on the basis of permits issued by judges.

The annual total ranges from 112 in 2010 to 310 in 2020.

Disseminating fake news has also been a basis for monitoring since 2020.

As in some cases the justice minister as well as a judge must issue a surveillance permit, HVG also requested data from the ministry but the ministry only revealed the number of requests made – 440 in the first four months of this year, 1,374 last year and 1,469 in 2021.

The ministry did not divulge the number of permitted surveillances, saying that that information is secret classified data.

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