Ukrainian man suspected of espionage detained; another spy suspect started to talk – VIDEO
A Ukrainian man suspected of espionage, among other things, was detained for a month allowed under Hungarian law, at the order of the Budapest Prosecutor’s Office, the authority said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian man suspected of espionage detained
The defence has appealed the ruling, the statement said. The Prosecutor’s Office initiated the arrest on Tuesday to avoid flight abroad or influencing the collection of evidence, it said.
On Tuesday, the office said in a statement that there is well-founded suspicion that the man had been commissioned by the Ukrainian military intelligence service to collect data and information. On the basis of this activity, the investigating authority had suspected the man of espionage and other crimes, the statement added.
Roland Tseber talked to RTL Klub
Yesterday, Máté Kocsis, the parliamentary group leader of the ruling Fidesz, identified Roland Tseber as an “illegal” officer who had probably been actively building relations with members of the Hungarian opposition for a long time. Kocsis added that Tseber had met several leading politicians and senior officials of parliamentary parties as part of his activities in Hungary.
Kocsis added that Tseber was a dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizen earlier, but he returned his Hungarian citizenship in 2017. Tseber has built a political career in Ukraine, including as a representative of the Transcarpathian County Council, Kocsis said. Tseber had been on the radar of the Hungarian national security authorities for years, and he was banned from entering and staying in Hungary due to his intensifying activities in 2024, Kocsis added.
Tseber talked to RTL Klub, a Hungarian commercial TV channel, and denied Kocsis’s allegations. He said he had never been in contact with the Ukrainian intelligence services. He added that the Hungarian authorities introduced a travel ban against him after he met Péter Magyar, the challenger of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
After multiple Fidesz politicians accused him of being a spy, Tseber called them rats on his Facebook page, which the Hungarian foreign minister regarded as unacceptable. Tseber expressed regret for reacting out of anger.
According to RTL Klub, the Ukrainian man detained for suspected espionage was the other individual Kocsis mentioned during yesterday’s press conference: István Holló.
Péter Magyar and the espionage ‘scandal’
The communication of Fidesz suggests that Péter Magyar deliberately met with a Ukrainian spy while meeting Roland Tseber. Tisza party said Magyar did not know he was a spy suspect in the eyes of the Hungarian authorities since nobody warned him, despite being an MEP.
Here are two photos: in the first one, Tseber is with Levente Magyar, Hungary’s Deputy Foreign Minister. On the second, you can see Péter Magyar.
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