National security committee concludes meeting on Szazadveg case with conflict of opinion

Budapest (MTI) – Parliament’s national security committee concluded a discussion about the case of Szazadveg, a think tank accused of handling state secrets, with a conflict in the opinions of party representatives at its meeting on Wednesday.

The case was put on the committee’s agenda by its chairman, Socialist lawmaker Zsolt Molnar, last week.

Molnar then said that the committee sought a briefing concerning who among the think tank’s staff had access to which official documents and on what basis.

The Hungarian Liberal Party earlier called for the committee to be convened to examine allegations that Szazadveg had seen classified state documents.

In a written answer to a parliamentary question, the minister of the interior, Sandor Pinter, said staff of the Szazadveg School of Politics had not received certification to handle state secrets in the period before 2013.

The Szazadveg School of Politics Foundation firmly denied allegations which it called “malevolent lies” and insisted that reports that it had access to state classified documents are unfounded.