Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on October 7 that Hungary's Central Chief Prosecution Office questioned him in connection with a case in which he is suspected of stealing a mobile phone.

Magyar announced the questioning himself in a social media post, before the prosecution issued a public statement. He said he appeared at a pre-arranged time, gave a brief statement and did not admit to the alleged offence. He said he would provide information on further developments

Prosecutors allege that Magyar took a mobile phone from a man who had been filming him at a Budapest nightclub on June 21, 2024 and later threw it into the Danube. The incident took place just days before Magyar took his EP seat. Fidesz-aligned media reported at the time, based on witness accounts, that Magyar behaved conspicuously and inappropriately at the club. The alleged victim, a mechanical engineer, said Magyar had approached him and told him to stop filming. Magyar then grabbed the phone and ran off with it. Security staff escorted Magyar from the club and he then threw the phone into the Danube.

Divers recovered the handset a few days later, and the extracted data is now being used as evidence. According to Magyar, police have threatened the safety of divers recovering the phone. Commentators said at the time that the recovery effort showed the lengths to which the Orban government was prepared to go to gather compromising material on the opposition leader.

Fidesz widely used the incident to attack Magyar personally and politically, as well as the newly formed opposition group. Tisza had made a strong debut in the June 2024 European Parliament election, winning 29.6% of the vote and seven seats just three months after its formation. Police opened an investigation, and prosecutors later sought to lift his European Parliament immunity over a suspected minor theft. As an MEP, the case fell under the European Parliament's immunity procedure, but the EP ultimately voted not to waive his immunity.

 Magyar personally initiated the immunity request, saying he wanted to disprove what he described as an attempt at political character assassination. On September 28, Parliament voted 139-0 to lift the immunity of Magyar and two former ministers from Viktor Orban's previous government.

The parliamentary vote brought the three cases together politically, but they remain legally separate. The investigations into former culture and innovation minister Balazs Hanka and former development minister Miklos Sesztak are part of Magyar’s government campaign to investigate alleged corruption and abuse of office during Orban’s 16 years in power. The probes have been described as the first major corruption investigations targeting senior figures from the former government. Courts ordered the 30-day detention of both politicians.

Hanko is being held over the suspected misuse of HUF17bn (€46mn) in cultural funds managed by his ministry. Prosecutors are examining decisions involving more than 1,000 funding applications and the fund's disbursement just before the election.

Seszták, a KDNP lawmaker, faces a separate investigation into suspected bribery and kickbacks linked to vehicle procurement involving the state-owned bus company Volanbusz and public construction projects. Prosecutors allege that he received unlawful benefits through an intermediary in connection with contracts awarded between 2015 and 2018. Seszták has denied wrongdoing.

Magyar's decision to announce the questioning himself meant he disclosed the development before the prosecution issued any statement, political analyst Szabolcs Dull writes. The case is politically sensitive as no sitting Hungarian prime minister has previously faced criminal proceedings since the country's political transition, according to the account cited.

Magyar is also seeking to distance the case from his government's efforts to hold officials of the previous political establishment accountable, with the phone theft allegation unrelated and considerably less serious than the cases at the centre of those efforts.