If found guilty, the opposition's new hope, Peter Magyar, could face up to two years in prison for a nightclub brawl. Just to recall, a few days before taking over his EP mandate, the leader of the Tisza (Respect and Freedom) Party behaved so scandalously in the elite club Otkert in central Budapest that he was finally escorted out of the nightclub by the security service around four o'clock in the morning.
According to several eyewitnesses, Magyar behaved in an unacceptable manner after consuming large quantities of alcohol. Several video recordings of what was happening were taken by the guests there. Magyar forcibly took the phone from the hand of one of these people, and after the security led him out of the club, he walked to the riverbank and dropped the phone into the Danube.
Following several complaints of disorder and vandalism, the police launched investigation into Peter Magyar's scandal on the day the incident took place. Since Magyar as MEP has immunity, the case was eventually transferred to the Central Chief Prosecution Office of Investigation (KNYF). Last Thursday, the prosecution office asked the president of the European Parliament to suspend the parliamentary immunity of the opposition politician on suspicion of theft.
If Magyar was drunk, that could be an aggravating circumstance
If Magyar is stripped of his immunity, the possibility of questioning him as a suspect and if grounded, prosecuting him will open up. If found guilty by the court, he could face up to two years in prison as the prosecution office wants to charge him with the offence of theft, lawyer Istvan Balsai Jr told Magyar Nemzet. If it is proven that the offence was committed while drunk or intoxicated due to his own fault and that his condition played a role in committing the offence, this will be considered as an aggravating circumstance. If proven, a further aggravating circumstance may be the vandal manner in which the offence was committed, the lawyer explained.
Prison sentences in similar cases
Earlier, the Metropol paper pointed to the similarity of Magyar's case to a robbery in 2016, when a 19-year-old man forcibly took the mobile phone of a 14-year-old girl on a bus. The suspect was sentenced to two years in prison in an accelerated procedure. In 2022, a 31-year-old man stole phones on tram 1 and around the tram stops: like Peter Magyar, he took the phones from the hands of the victims and then ran away. The man was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment. These cases are eerily similar to the behavior of the Tisza Party's president, but Magyar would only be suspected of theft by the prosecutor's office, so it is unlikely that he would be handed a prison sentence if the court found him guilty.
Magyra insists on his immunity
The question is, of course, whether the theft case will reach the point where he will have to appear before a Hungarian court, since the president of the Tisza Party stated on Sunday that he has no intention of asking the European Parliament to lift his immunity, even though he previously said he opposite. So it is possible that the politician, who has been implicated in a common criminal offense, will be let go.
