Tibor Szatmári, the former head of the Budapest office of the
Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, had contacts with a
diplomat posted in Hungary - at least this is what the Hungarian
counter-intelligence service suspected in 2004. The NBH believes that
Szatmári and his wife, who worked in the Hungarian civil service, were
both working for foreign interests. They collected information and
worked to sour the relationship between the Budapest government and
ethnic Hungarian minorities in neighbouring countries. On the latter
count, the couple were also serving domestic political interests in
Hungary.
In his report to Ferenc Gyurcsány, the prime minister, András Tóth,
the state secretary in charge of the civil secret service, says
Szatmári "actively contributed to the preparation of the dual
nationality referendum and Fidesz's campaign strategy. After the
referendum they worked to stoke discontent at the result amongst
Hungarians abroad." The widely leaked document also reveals that Tóth
believes that Tibor Szatmári was in "regular and confidential" contact
with Antal Rogán, Fidesz's campaign chief, Máriusz Révész, the Fidesz
spokesman, and Zsolt Németh, the party's foreign affairs shadow. All
three have denied the claim, telling the public that they will bring
libel proceedings against Tóth.
It would seem that the long-time consensus on national security
affairs that has united all governments and all oppositions has
finally collapsed. László Kövér, the former security services
minister, last week said that Tóth could no longer do his job
properly. And neither could Tóth's immediate superior, Péter Kiss, the
chancery minister, who had "tolerated Tóth's running amok." Gyurcsány
lurked in the background to the whole affair, he said.
The daily Magyar Hírlap has claimed that an official of the National
Security Service - which oversees the technical operations of the NBH
- told the parliamentary national security committee that state
secretary Tóth had completely rewritten the Service's report on the
affair - though there had only been a change in emphasis, not in
content. The late-summer scandal concerned Tibor Szatmári and his wife
Ildikó, who worked in the education ministry and the Hungarians Abroad
Office. They were said to have obtained information through their
relationships with leaders in Budapest, which they passed on to the
Romanian security services.
Ildikó was linked with Bálint Magyar, the education minister, and
István Hiller and Tamás Szabados, both former state secretaries.
According to the report, however, none of these gave out classified
documents. But József Bálint-Pataki, the former president of the
Hungarians Abroad Office, almost certainly did. Indeed László Sagyebó,
a department head in the Office is said to have illegally given
Szatmári access to the Office's computerised database. Nothing
indicates that confidential information was leaked in this way, and
there has been no suggestion that Tibor obtained confidential
documents from Attila Ara-Kovács, a deputy department head at the
Foreign Ministry, with whom Szatmári was also in touch. But his
relationship with a foreign diplomat posted to Budapest may turn out
to be more interesting, according to government sources, who refused
to say which country the diplomat in question was working for, or
whether he remained in the country.
