Budapest police officers taken into custody in rape case

Five Budapest policemen, all of them members of the Police Security Service (Rebisz), were taken into custody on Thursday after a young woman identified them as her rapists, Hungarian media reported on Friday morning.

Portal Juj.hu first reported on May 14 that a 21-year-old woman named Zsanett had been raped by uniformed officers on May 4. The woman told the portal that early on that morning she had been driving home from a party when she was stopped on Budapest's Múzeum körút by five officers.

According to the woman, the officers first threatened to take away her drivers' license for failure to wear a seatbelt, then demanded a bribe. As she did not have the amount of money demanded by the officers in her possession, the woman said the officers told her she would have to go with them to a nearby police station for a blood test, to determine if she was intoxicated. But instead of taking her to the police station, the officers allegedly drove her to an empty side street, where one officer forced her to perform oral sex on him while another raped her. According to the woman's account, two of the other officers watched the assault from their patrol car, while the fifth "guarded" the area.

While some media reports identified the woman as the girlfriend of a member of the popular Hungarian band "Hooligans," the man in question later said she was just a close friend who had called him after the incident to ask for help.

The woman turned to the Budapest Investigative Prosecutors' Office on May 7 and informed them of the attack. The officers were then identified with the help of surveillance cameras and reports provided by the police, Budapest Head Prosecutor Sándor Ihász announced on Friday morning.

According to hirszerzo.hu, the five suspects, who are between the ages of 20 and 30, deny the accusations.

Rebisz is a special unit within the Budapest Police Department. Its tasks include securing "priority" buildings and locations and protecting VIPs, including visiting dignitaries. It has been the subject of controversy due to its officers' role in the street protests that have convulsed Hungary on several occasions since last September.

The commander of the unit, József Dobozi, said that the officers' immediate commander is under investigation, and that measures are being taken to ensure that such an incident does not happen in the future.

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