- More than 50 officers surrounded the church’s Budapest headquarters
- Hungarian police probing suspected misuse of information and ‘other crimes’
- National Investigation Bureau has listed the target as ‘unknown persons’
Hungarian police carried out a search at a Church of Scientology centre in Budapest amid a probe into suspected misuse of personal information and ‘other crimes’.
More than 50 officers surrounded the church’s Budapest headquarters on one of the Hungarian capital’s busiest roads early on Wednesday.
Detectives from the National Investigation Bureau have listed the target as ‘unknown persons’ – a common designation when a specific suspect has not been identified.
More than 50 officers surrounded the church’s Budapest headquarters on one of the Hungarian capital’s busiest roads early on Wednesday
Church of Scientology International spokeswoman Karin Pouw called the search ‘religious suppression under the guise of data protection.’
Pouw added that the raid was ‘an outrageous and wholesale violation of the human rights of all Scientologists in the country’.
She said: ‘These actions are guided by the discriminatory and hostile purposes of data protection officials who are using the law not as a shield to safeguard others, but as a sword to violate the rights of Scientology parishioners.’
Detectives from the National Investigation Bureau have listed the target as ‘unknown persons’ – a common designation when a specific suspect has not been identified
The Church of Scientology is not among the 32 churches officially recognized by Hungary since a widely disputed law on religious matters went into force in 2012. Police are pictured standing outside the entrance
Hungarian police confirmed the search took place but said additional information would not be released.
The Church of Scientology is not among the 32 churches officially recognized by Hungary since a widely disputed law on religious matters went into force in 2012.