Updated: Kickbacks Case: Budapest District Mayor Locked Up for Alleged Corruption
- 22 Aug 2024 9:59 AM
- Hungary Matters
The mayor of Budapest’s 3rd district, László Kiss, another local council leader and a former employee of the mayor’s office have been placed in detention in connection with alleged corruption, the Central Investigative Chief Prosecutor’s Office said.
The chief prosecutor’s office has interviewed another five persons as suspects in an ongoing investigation, three of whom have been placed in detention, the statement said.
The office on Wednesday carried out a coordinated operation in connection with the case which involved searching local council properties and companies belonging to the local council, and seizing documents.
Kiss is suspected of arranging regular business transactions after his 2019 election as mayor with a company owned by one of his acquaintances, after which he and several local council employees were receiving kickbacks.
The local council allegedly signed overpriced and fictitious contracts to conceal the bribes, it added.
The detention of the deputy mayor interrogated earlier in the case as a suspect has been extended until October 20.
Vitézy Calls for New Local Election in Budapest's 3rd District
Dávid Vitézy, an elected member of the Budapest municipal assembly, has called for a new local election in Budapest’s 3rd district in wake of the arrest of the district mayor for alleged corruption.
Vitézy, a representative of With Dávid Vitézy for Budapest-LMP-Greens, said on Facebook that a new election was needed to allow local residents “to elect a mayor who, together with his deputy, is not heading a district with 128,000 residents from preliminary arrest”.
Vitézy criticised Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony for “not saying even a word about the political and administrative crisis that has developed in one of the largest districts of Budapest”.
He said the Budapest list in the local elections headed by Karácsony had included the current 3rd district mayor László Kiss (DK-LMP-Momentum-Socialists-Párbeszéd).
According to the election billboards, Karácsony had recommended Kiss as “the best choice”, he added. Karácsony should make it clear if he maintains his support for Kiss or agrees that he should resign, Vitézy said.
“Karácsony’s party could also be implicated” in the corruption case, considering that the campaign chief of Párbeszéd co-leader and 3rd district MP Tímea Szabó has also been detained by police, he added.
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