Hungary has detained the brother of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban as part of an investigation into a people-smuggling ring, a development confirmed by Prime Minister Peter Magyar during a speech in Berlin. The announcement followed a statement from the country's anti-graft agency indicating that law enforcement had taken four people into custody and executed home searches across multiple locations in Budapest and Pest county.
Speaking on the sidelines of his address in the German capital, Magyar noted that three former ministers from the Orban administration were already in custody, adding that the former prime minister's brother, 49-year-old businessman Aron Orban, had also been taken into custody.
Writing on social media, Viktor Orban characterized his brother's detention as an act of political retaliation. He stated that the objective of the action was to eliminate political opposition and establish a one-party system, asserting that he was the primary target while his younger brother was merely being used as a tool.
Neither the National Asset Protection and Recovery Office nor the police identified the detained suspects by name in their public statements or media responses. The anti-graft body was established to investigate corruption allegations spanning Orban's 16-year tenure, accusations that the former leader has consistently denied. The agency was created following Magyar's victory in an April election and serves as the centerpiece of an anti-corruption campaign termed Operation Purgatory.
According to authorities, the four detained suspects are accused of assisting Vietnamese citizens in traveling to Western Europe over several months in 2024. Investigators stated that the perpetrators charged visa applicants recruitment fees at Hungarian diplomatic missions in Vietnam and subsequently split the proceeds among themselves. Law enforcement described the suspects, consisting of one woman and three men, as facing allegations of human smuggling carried out through a criminal conspiracy for financial gain.
Earlier in September, the anti-graft office indicated that selling political connections to secure employment residence permits was among its initial investigative targets. Several other high-profile figures, including two former government ministers and former central bank chief Gyorgy Matolcsy, are also currently detained on separate graft allegations.