The younger brother of former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has been detained in a people-smuggling investigation. Áron Orbán, 49, a businessman, is in custody in a case concerning the entry of Vietnamese nationals into Western Europe on visas issued by Hungary — and therefore valid across the Schengen area.
The detention was confirmed by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who first mentioned it in a Facebook post on Monday, 9 November, and then in a speech in Berlin on Tuesday, according to Reuters. "Already his brother today went to custody," he said.
Four detained, searches in two areas
The case is being handled by the National Asset Protection and Recovery Office (NVVH), an anti-graft body set up by the current government, in a joint operation with the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI). The NVVH said it had detained four people — one woman and three men — and searched homes in Budapest and Pest county. Neither the police nor the agency named the suspects.
The offence, according to Hungarian police, is "human smuggling committed as part of a criminal conspiracy for the purpose of financial gain". Authorities say the group charged visa applicants a "recruitment fee" at Hungary's diplomatic missions in Vietnam and shared the money, in a scheme said to have run for several months of 2024.
Hungarian media add a detail about the method: according to those reports, relayed by Euronews, a company belonging to Áron Orbán is said to have helped Vietnamese nationals obtain Hungarian visas by enrolling them in a two-day course at the University of Pécs. He is also alleged to have asked a prime ministerial commissioner to speed up the visa procedures.
Viktor Orbán's response
The former prime minister reacted on Facebook by treating the case as political retaliation, calling the detention a "dirty game". "I am the target, my younger brother is merely a tool," he wrote.
Magyar, a pro-European Union conservative, won April's election by a wide margin and ended Viktor Orbán's 16 years in power, promising to investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of office from the previous period. The NVVH was created for that purpose, and Magyar himself has dubbed the drive "Operation Purgatory". Orbán denies the allegations.
On 28 September the agency took over four cases; the first of them described as the "sale of political connections to obtain residence permits for the purpose of employment" — the same line of inquiry into which this week's detention falls.
How many former ministers are being held
The figures diverge. Magyar said three former ministers from Orbán's governments are in custody. Reuters, for its part, identifies two former ministers and former central bank governor György Matolcsy — whom Orbán once called his "right-hand" man — held in separate graft cases. Neither the government nor the agency has named the ministers, and the count remains without a single official confirmation.
With information from Reuters, Euronews and statements by Hungary's National Asset Protection and Recovery Office (NVVH) and the Hungarian police.
