Magyar Péter on Ötkert case investigation materials: polygraph, secret service, charge reclassification
Magyar Péter read out details from the investigation materials of the alleged phone theft case against him. According to him, there is no footage of the throwing into the Danube on the recordings, and the injured party failed the lie detector test.
Magyar Péter on Ötkert case details: no footage of throwing into the Danube, injured party failed the polygraph test
Magyar Péter on Friday, at a government press briefing, read out details from the investigation materials compiled by the prosecution in the alleged phone theft case against him – reported Telex. According to Magyar, the expert commissioned by the prosecution saw no gesture of throwing into the Danube in the camera footage, and the telephone recovered from the river operated without damage.
Background to the case: conflict at Ötkert
On 21 July 2024, Magyar Péter became involved in a conflict with a man at the Ötkert venue. The man and the prosecution claim that Magyar took away the phone belonging to the man who was filming him, and then threw it into the river from the waterfront. The prosecution sought to lift Magyar's parliamentary immunity in September, which parliament granted; on Wednesday evening, 7 October, he was suspected of theft.
Pixelated footage, at dawn
At Friday's press briefing – whose main topic was the Southern Ring Road – ATV and Hír TV also asked about the case. Magyar initially only stated that he had presented a substantive defence, that is, he denied committing the offence. However, he later read out details from the investigation materials.
"A very thick file was placed in front of me, the kind they usually produce in multiple murder cases and such ten-billion-forint thefts," said Magyar, adding that virtually everyone in Budapest's city centre had been questioned as a witness. The expert commissioned by the prosecution examined the camera footage of the Danube embankment – which was recorded at dawn – by pixelating it, and determined that there was "no gesture whatsoever of throwing into the Danube visible in the footage".
From damage to theft – without justification
Magyar also raised the question of the change in the charge. The procedure began at the police station for damage, and the prosecution also investigated on this basis – even though the telephone recovered from the Danube operated without damage according to the prosecution's expert. According to Magyar, it is incomprehensible how there could have been talk of damage under such circumstances.
In September 2024, Pál Fürcht, the then chief prosecutor of the Central Investigation Office, sought to lift parliamentary immunity from the European Parliament citing the offence of theft. According to Magyar's claim, this reclassification was not supported by any justification.
The injured party failed the lie detector test
Magyar also claimed at the press briefing that the alleged owner of the telephone did not pass the polygraph examination. "The so-called injured party was subjected to a polygraph, a lie detector test, and they went through all the propaganda and failed the polygraph examination," he said.
According to details read out from the investigation materials, the man had previously claimed that he had extensive compromising footage of the evening events, but when the prosecutors asked where this was, the man testified as follows: "I was surprised to discover that these videos disappeared from my phone, precisely the most compromising ones. I do not know who accessed my data or how, but I am certain it was some sort of secret service operation. [...] In my view, there was foreign interference in the Hungarian elections."
According to the man's testimony, he passed the recordings on to others as well, including TV2, where they ultimately decided not to air them. "When I saw that TV2 was not going to play the videos, just kept promising, I then contacted Róbert Ábrahám, and after an interview I made the one or two existing videos available to him" – reads the testimony passage read out by Magyar.
Aggression in the footage: Magyar denies it
Hír TV also asked about the phone owner's report of aggressive behaviour. Magyar disputed this as well: "I read through the thick investigation file and on my part there is no sign of any aggression whatsoever. Yet they questioned approximately eighteen witnesses, and not a single one said that they had seen any aggression or any hitting."
According to Magyar, the CCTV footage shows that it was the injured party who "pulled, embraced my neck and acted aggressively".
The injured party's lawyer and political connection
Magyar also mentioned as one of the curiosities of the case that "the so-called injured party's lawyer acting in the proceedings was the common lawyer of the previous Prime Minister's Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister's Office, that is, of Antal Rogán and Gergely Gulyás."
What is to be expected next?
On Friday, Magyar Péter outlined three possible scenarios for the continuation of the proceedings: the prosecution could close the case, bring charges with the same or a different classification, or continue the matter in misdemeanour proceedings instead of a criminal offence.
According to Magyar's account, after his interrogation he expected that the prosecutors would inform him what would happen next, but they signalled that they would need more time for this. Magyar expects that the proceedings will be closed within a few weeks.
Telex contacted the Central Investigation Office (KNYF) to ask them to comment on the Prime Minister's statements.
Source: Telex