A man holds a walkie-talkie device after he removed the battery during the funeral of persons killed when hundreds of paging devices exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon the previous day, in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sept. 18, 2024. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BUDAPEST — The pager devices used in mass detonations in Lebanon were never in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government said in a statement on Wednesday.
Taiwanese pager firm Gold Apollo said on Wednesday the model of pagers used in the attack against Hezbollah were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting, adding it had only licensed its brand to the company and was not involved in the production of the devices.
Reuters calls and emails to BAC on Wednesday were not answered.
"Hungarian authorities have established that the company in question is a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary," government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on Facebook.
"It has one head of operations in Hungary on its listed address and the devices referenced have never been to Hungary."
Hungarian national security authorities would co-operate with all involved international partner services and partner organizations in further investigations, Kovacs said, adding the issue did not represent a national security risk to Hungary.
Previous Reuters and New York Times reports stated that the devices that exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon had come from Gold Apollo and entered the country in recent months as part of Hezbollah's latest shipment of new pager devices used by its members in lieu of cell phones. The pagers were intended to protect the party from security breaches by Israel, known for its surveillance and cyberattack capabilities.