BUDAPEST, Hungary — Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ‘s younger brother was taken into police custody on Monday, the new prime minister said, part of a probe into suspected human trafficking and influence peddling committed while the elder Orbán was still in office. The move was part of a comprehensive push by Hungary’s new government, led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, to unearth suspected corruption and abuses of office committed by Orbán’s far-right administration and associated business circles during his 16 years in power. Magyar, whose center-right Tisza party defeated Orbán in a landslide election in April, has called the effort “Operation Cleansing Fire.” Several Orbán-era officials, including the former governor of the Central Bank, are already in police detention on suspicion of fraud and corruption crimes. In a statement on Monday, Hungarian police said they made arrests and carried out house searches in four separate locations in and around the capital, Budapest, and had employed the assistance of Hungary’s Counter-Terrorism Center in the actions since the presence of firearms was expected at two of the scenes. The arrest of four individuals was part of an ongoing joint investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation and the newly formed National Asset Recovery and Protection Office. The investigation centers on the alleged use of political connections to arrange expedited work permits for foreign nationals in exchange for lucrative payments. Police said the four individuals, who are all suspected of “human trafficking committed in a criminal conspiracy for financial gain,” had facilitated Hungarian residence permits for more than 100 Vietnamese nationals in 2024, most of whom had aimed to leave Hungary for countries in Western Europe. One of the suspects is alleged to have engaged in influence peddling in the acquisition of the residence permits. Police did not release the names of the suspects, and declined to provide further details on their identities in response to a request by The Associated Press. But Orbán, who remains the president of his far-right, anti-immigration Fidesz party, said in a Facebook post on Monday that police actions against his brother, Áron Orbán, were politically motivated. “I am the target; my younger brother is just a means to an end,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday. “What is happening in Hungary is not accountability but a settling of scores. ... In this dirty game, the aim is to eliminate political opponents and establish a one-party system.” In a Facebook post, Magyar said Orbán had confirmed his brother’s detention. Photographs published by Hungarian news outlet HVG Monday evening showed the younger Orbán arriving in a police vehicle at a pretrial detention facility in Budapest. Áron Orbán’s detention was the latest in several high-profile police actions against former officials or other individuals with close ties to the former prime minister. In October, police detained the former governor of the Hungarian Central Bank, György Matolcsy, for suspected fraud and other crimes. Matolcsy was one of Orbán’s closest economic allies, and is suspected of misusing funds through a foundation set up in 2014 that was endowed with some US$818 million in public assets. Matolcsy has denied wrongdoing and is still in custody, while an international arrest warrant for his son, Ádám, is still active. In September, police took into custody two former ministers in Orbán’s government who are suspected of, separately, criminal mismanagement of 17.3 billion forints ($53.6 million) of public funds and accepting more than 12 billion forints ($37.2 million) in bribes and kickbacks. They remain in police custody. On Monday, Orbán’s Fidesz party added Áron Orbán to a list of “political prisoners” on its website. Justin Spike, The Associated Press
