Elections Committee upholds Czegledy's immunity, court drops criminal procedure

A court in Szeged has terminated a criminal procedure against Csaba Czegledy, after the National Elections Committee upheld his immunity as a candidate in the European parliamentary elections for Hungary's opposition Democratic Coalition (DK). On April 26, the court in southern Hungary requested that the Elections Committee should suspend Czegledy's immunity so that the proceedings could continue. The ruling parties said that "the opposition has openly sided with a criminal" referring to opposition members of the Elections Committee refusing to lift Czegledy's immunity. Lorinc Nacsa, parliamentary spokesman for the co-ruling Christian Democrats, said that the opposition is "covering up for Czegledy to get away with a crime". Czegledy, a municipal politician in Szombathely, in western Hungary, was arrested in July 2017 under charges of major fraud and forgery of public documents. He was put in house arrest in December last year, and was released in February. He was indicted for tax fraud to the tune of six billion forints (EUR 18.9m).