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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jon Henley Europe correspondent

Two ex-ministers from Orbán era held over suspected bribery and misuse of public funds

Magyar speaks while surrounded by women and men sitting in the national assembly
Hungary's prime minister, Péter Magyar, speaks at an extraordinary session of the national assembly, during which deputies voted to suspend his immunity, in Budapest, Hungary, 28 September 2026. Photograph: Zsolt Szigetváry/EPA

Two ministers in Viktor Orbán’s former far-right government suspected separately of misusing millions of euros of public funds and taking millions more in bribes have been detained, hours after Hungarian MPs voted to lift their immunity.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Balázs Hankó, Orbán’s culture minister and still an MP in the former prime minister’s nationalist Fidesz party, was ​taken into custody late on Monday. Hankó is suspected of misappropriation of funds. He has denied any wrongdoing.

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