George Soros

George Soros, founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations, in Brussels, Belgium, 27 April 2017. EPA-EFE/OLIVIER HOSLET

Is there any truth in all this, Deutsche Welle asks in the text "George Soros, the ruler from the shadows?"

Hungary's government on Monday launched Prime Minister Viktor Orban's eighth 'national consultation', which critics describe as a tool to create the illusion of popular consent for his controversial policies.

National consultations look like opinion polls, are sent to every household, and usually contain a list of questions.

To be launched in mid-March, the national survey of public opinion concerns the "jail business", a term coined by government propagandists to refer to criminals who sue the state for huge sums in compensation, citing poor prison conditions.

An Istanbul court on Feb. 19 arrested businessman Osman Kavala, as part of a probe into the defeated coup attempt of 2016, after he was acquitted from the Gezi Park trial.

After his unexpected acquittal, the Istanbul chief prosecutor has ordered civil society leader Osman Kavala back into detention on charges related to his alleged involvement in a failed coup attempt in 2016.

Kavala and the eight other defendants in the so-called "Gezi Park" trial were acquitted on Tuesday in a surprise verdict.

Turkish philanthropist and civil society leader Osman Kavala and eight co-defendants were acquitted by an Istanbul court on Tuesday on charges of trying to overthrow the government during a wave of protests in 2013 in defence of a park that city authorities planned to build on.

Their choice of meeting place was significant: the campus of the Central European University founded by US-Hungarian financier George Soros. The university is at odds with the government and is in the process of being ousted from Hungary.

The academics, however, say it is simply the latest move in a Fidesz strategy to rein in Hungary's intellectuals and stifle free, particularly critical, thought.

The battle over the academy began a year ago, and is nearing its denouement.

The decision to take them down was a rare reversal by a nationalist-populist leader whose party is on track to win more than half of the vote on May 26, giving Fidesz 14 or 15 of the country's 21 seats in the European parliament, versus 12 now, according to the latest polls.