RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 19, 25 April 1997

HUNGARIAN DEPUTIES SUSPECTED OF SECRET AGENT
ACTIVITIES UNDER COMMUNISM. Zoltan Hodaszi, who
chairs a panel screening judges, says several deputies are
suspected of having worked as secret agents, Hungarian media
reported yesterday. Two committees are currently examining
the records of some 600 officials to establish whether any were
employees of the III/III counter-intelligence department of the
communist-era Interior Ministry, whether they collaborated in
the hunting down of insurgents in the 1956 uprising, or
whether they had links with the pre-communist Arrow Cross
fascist party. Hodaszi did not specify for whom the suspected
deputies are supposed to have worked. Meanwhile, the ruling
Socialist Party leadership has said that Istvan Nikolitis,
minister without portfolio overseeing the civilian services,
bears no political responsibility for the way "Operation Birch
Tree" has been handled (see RFE/RL Newsline, 18 and 22 April
1997).

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