BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A European Parliament committee rejected on Tuesday a bid by the Hungarian prime minister that would lift the legal immunity from prosecution for one of its lawmakers who is Viktor Orbán 's main political rival.
Péter Magyar, who heads Hungary’s largest opposition party, Tisza, represents the most serious challenge to Orbán since the right-wing populist leader took power in 2010.
Orbán's government had requested that Magyar's immunity be lifted so he could face charges for alleged offenses that include theft of a mobile phone in a Budapest nightclub and defamation against a member of Orbán's Fidesz party.
Once an insider within Orbán's political circle, Magyar broke with Fidesz to launch Tisza. Recent polls suggest it has overtaken Fidesz amid a chronically weak economy and persistent inflation.
Ahead of Hungarian elections next April, Orbán has launched a full-scale communication barrage against his rival, leading some analysts and domestic critics to believe he may be laying the groundwork to try and disqualify Magyar from the vote.
Responding to the committee's decision to uphold Magyar's immunity, Orbán wrote on Facebook Tuesday that it was “Shameful, disgraceful.”
“Today in Brussels, it was proven that the leader of the opposition is Brussels’ man,” Orbán said.
In the closed-door vote, the European Parliament's legal affairs committee also blocked Hungary's attempt to strip immunity from two other lawmakers, including head of the Hungarian opposition party Democratic Coalition, Klára Dobrev.
It also upheld the immunity of Italian lawmaker Ilaria Salis, who faced prosecution in Hungary for her alleged role in assaults by antifascist activists on far-right demonstrators in Budapest in 2023.
Salis was jailed for more than a year in Hungary before winning a seat in the European legislature, granting her immunity. Hungarian authorities sought Salis's return to Hungary for trial, where prosecutors sought an 11-year prison sentence.
David Cormand, a French member of the European Parliament with the Greens coalition, told The Associated Press that he had voted to uphold Salis' immunity.
“The European Parliament has today sent a clear message: it will not be used as a tool for intimidation by Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian regime," Cormand said. "By protecting Ilaria Salis, we have protected the integrity of the European Parliament, democracy and the rights of European citizens. This is a victory for the rule of law.”
Associated Press writer Samuel McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.
FILE -Péter Magyar, a rising challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, addresses people at a campaign rally in the rural city of Debrecen, Hungary, on May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.
The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.
The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Galileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.
As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”
However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)
