PM reported to the police
Kornél Árok, the chief of Hungarian Civil Party of Socialdemocrats, reported Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to the police for violating the Hungarian Criminal Code, when saying he would sack Ildikó Vida, head of the Hungarian Tax and Customs Authority (NAV) involved in suspected corruption measures, unless she files a defamation lawsuit against U.S. Charge d’Affairs André Goodfriend, Hungarian online daily Origo reported.
Árok believes that by forcing Vida to initiate a lawsuit, Orbán violated Paragraph 195 of the Hungarian Criminal Code using coercion. “In my opinion Mr Prime Minister had no right for this step of forcing Ildikó Vida, thus he coerced her to do something she had not intended” Árok says.
Following Orbán’s speech, Vida initiated a lawsuit against Goodfriend and asked the United States to lift his immunity. Tensions have been growing between Hungary and the United States since mid October, when it was revealed that six Hungarians had been denied entry to the United States on suspicion of corruption. All six people are government employees or affiliated with the government, Goodfriend has said, but he refused to give details to Hungarian government entreaties, citing U.S. privacy laws. While he did not name the officials, Vida admitted that she is one of the people to whom Goodfriend is referring.
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