The Hungarian Parliament has stripped Péter Magyar of his immunity
The Hungarian Parliament has stripped Prime Minister Péter Magyar of his parliamentary immunity in connection with the 2024 cell phone incident. This decision allows criminal proceedings against the politician to continue.
The decision was approved by 139 members of parliament, with no votes against and no abstentions. The day before, the Hungarian Prosecutor General’s Office had submitted a request to Parliament to lift Magyar’s immunity in connection with the cell phone case.
The incident occurred in June 2024 at the Ötkert club in Budapest. According to the prosecutor’s office, during a confrontation, Mályar took a phone from a man who was filming him. The politician then allegedly put it in his pocket, left the club, and threw the device into the Danube. Divers later found the phone and returned it to its owner.
The prosecutor’s office is treating Mádár’s actions as a possible theft. However, this is merely a suspicion and not a court-established finding of guilt.
The case has a long history. In 2024, the Hungarian prosecutor’s office had already appealed to the European Parliament to lift Mályi’s immunity, since at that time he was a member of the European Parliament. The European Parliament declined to hand him over to Hungarian law enforcement at that time, after which the proceedings were suspended. After Madyar moved to the Hungarian Parliament, the issue of his immunity arose again.
Mágyar himself had previously stated that he was prepared to waive his parliamentary immunity and face law enforcement. He also proposed abolishing parliamentary immunity in cases involving criminal offenses prosecuted by the state.
Following the parliament’s decision, there are now fewer legal obstacles to continuing the proceedings regarding the phone incident. Hungarian law enforcement authorities can now proceed with the investigation. It is also worth noting that Magyar himself requested that his immunity be suspended for the sake of the investigation, since by law he could not waive it on his own.
Source: Index
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