Special Service for National Security had never spied on anyone without permission, said chief

Attila Mesterházy, the (Socialist) deputy head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, on Monday discussed with the head of the Special Service for National Security (NSZ) allegations regarding the use of the Israeli-made Pegasus spyware in Hungary.

Mesterházy told a press conference after his meeting with Hedvig Szabo that the NSZ chief gave a guarantee that the agency had never spied on anyone without permission. Mesterhazy added, however, that because of a confidentiality statement he had signed, he was only able to provide general information about his meeting with Szabo.

Mesterhazy said he had been told that the NSZ only provided the technical framework for the operations of other organisations such as the prosecutor’s office or the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and was therefore not responsible for their analysis either.

This, he explained, meant that it was the organisations in question that ordered the surveillance operation, and furthermore, the NSZ was not responsible for making sure that an operation was lawful.

Most such operations are approved by a court while some are signed off by the justice minister, he added.