Supreme court: Hungarian MEP spied for Russians

The Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, has increased a prison sentence handed to Béla Kovács, a former politician of the opposition Jobbik party, for espionage to 5 years, news portal mandiner.hu said on Tuesday.

Kúria ruled that the former Jobbik MEP was guilty of espionage against European Union institutions, budgetary fraud and the forging of personal documents. It increased a previous suspended sentence to five years in prison and also banned him for ten years from participating in public affairs. The earliest time that he can be allowed conditional release is after completing two-thirds of his sentence.

The court laid out the justification of the ruling behind closed doors because it involved classified data.

Kovács currently lives in Moscow and was not present at the announcement.

The Constitutional Protection Office, Hungary’s internal security intelligence agency, filed a report against Kovács in April 2014 after it was revealed by the civil national security services that he had regularly met Russian diplomats and paid monthly visits to Moscow.