US pedophile suspect seeks asylum in Hungary

A US national recently arrested in Budapest on paedophilia-related charges has applied to the Hungarian authorities for asylum, news portal Index reported on Friday.

John D Clark is wanted by the FBI for allegedly possessing over 13,000 illegal images of minors and distributing them over the internet.

FBI's agents arrived in Budapest a few days ago to transfer Clark to the US, but they will have wait for the completion of a procedure conducted by the Hungarian immigration authority connected to the suspect's appeal, index.hu said.

Clark's move seems to have been designed to gain some time before he is sent back to the US, where he is likely to face a long prison term, Jozsef Nahalko, a senior official of the Budapest police told the news site.

Nahalko said that the police had not found any evidence of Clark having committed illegal acts in Hungary. He added that Hungary's authorities wanted Clark to be prosecuted in his home country, whose laws he had violated.

Clark, who lived and worked as a teacher in Budapest, was arrested in District VII on April 13 after some of his students identified him as matching a description on an FBI wanted list.

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