Hungary has detained Áron Orbán, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as part of a people-smuggling investigation, Prime Minister Péter Magyar has said.

Magyar confirmed the detention during a speech in Berlin on Monday, telling the audience that three former ministers from Orbán's government were already in custody. “Already his brother today went to custody,” he said, according to Reuters.

The detention followed coordinated raids on Monday by Hungary's anti-graft body, the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, and police, who detained four people and searched homes at several sites in Budapest and the surrounding Pest county.

What the investigation involves

According to the authorities, the four people detained — one woman and three men — are suspected of helping Vietnamese citizens reach Western Europe over several months in 2024. Investigators say the group charged visa applicants a so-called recruitment fee at Hungarian foreign missions in Vietnam and shared the money between them.

The anti-graft body and police have not publicly named the four people detained, and have declined to confirm identities in response to questions from reporters. The account that Áron Orbán, a 49-year-old businessman, was among those taken into custody rests on the prime minister's statement and on reports in Hungarian media.

Viktor Orbán dismissed his brother's detention as political revenge, writing on Facebook that he was the target and his brother was “merely a tool”.

A wider anti-corruption drive

The case sits at the centre of a sweeping accountability campaign launched after Magyar ousted Orbán in an April election, ending 16 years in power for the former prime minister. The anti-graft body was set up by Magyar's government to investigate alleged corruption during Orbán's rule, which Orbán has denied.

The story was first reported on Monday by Kontroll, a news site owned by Magyar's younger brother, shortly before police issued their own statement. Magyar then wrote on Facebook that, according to press reports, Áron Orbán had been taken into custody on suspicion of human trafficking.

The anti-graft body had already signalled the direction of its work in September, when it announced it had taken on four cases, the first of which concerned the selling of political connections to obtain work-purpose residence permits. Hungarian media have previously linked Áron Orbán's business network to efforts to secure Hungarian visas and residence permits for nationals of Vietnam, Nepal and other non-EU countries.

Two former ministers from Orbán's government and former central bank chief György Matolcsy are already under arrest in separate investigations, according to Reuters.

The investigation is continuing, and further details of the charges were expected from the authorities. No charge against Áron Orbán had been publicly announced at the time of publication.