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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian officials said Friday that two suspects detained last week after weapons were found in their car sought to "execute" members of the government.
Laszlo Tasnadi, secretary of state for law enforcement at the Interior Ministry, said that the men, since placed under preliminary arrest by a court order, held extremist views.
Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said the men's intentions were discovered during police work related to the protection of top officials, including the president, the prime minister and the head of the constitutional court.
Tasnadi did not say which officials may have been allegedly targeted by the suspects.
The Counterterrorism Center said after the detentions that security had been tightened for the dignitaries.
Pinter, echoing similar statements by other government officials, also defended the actions of the Counterterrorism Center, better known in Hungary by its acronym — TEK, which detained the suspects.
TEK was criticized this week by opposition politicians and derided by the media after a court ruled that four other suspects detained Saturday in a separate case had no connections to terrorism or criminal organizations and were actually "World War II enthusiasts and hobbyists."
The four men were found transporting an assortment of old grenades in their car they had uncovered with metal detectors in a forest.
A TEK official had insinuated that they could have links to terrorism and "international ramifications" but a request to place one of the four under preliminary arrest was rejected by a court. It was later revealed that two of the men were Hungarian citizens and the other two ethnic Hungarians from neighboring Slovakia.
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