Hungarian prosecutors on Wednesday charged Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony over his role in organizing last year's Pride parade, saying he violated the country's assembly law.

The move heats up a legal battle between Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing populist government and the leftist-green mayor.

Why was Pride banned in Budapest?

Budapest Pride took place on June 28 last year and drew around 200,000 participants celebrating LGBT+ people.

The event went ahead after Orban's government amended the law on public assembly. The legislation bans holding or attending assemblies that violate the law on the protection of children, which forbids promoting or displaying homosexuality or gender change to persons under the age of 18, therefore banning Pride parades.

That allowed police to prohibit the march as part of a broader campaign widely criticized as homophobic.

Karacsony reclassified the parade as a city hall-organized event to sidestep the changes, arguing it no longer fell under the assembly law. Prosecutors, who are seen as loyal to Orban's government, have nonetheless proceeded with criminal charges.

What do we know about the charges?

Prosecutors have "filed charges and seek a fine against the mayor of Budapest, who organized and led a public gathering despite a police ban," their office said in a statement.

"The district prosecutor's office proposed that the court impose a fine on the defendant in a summary judgement without a trial," it added, without adding details on the amount of the fine sought.

Karacsony wrote on Facebook that he had gone from a "proud suspect to a proud defendant."

"It seems that in this country, this is the price you pay if you stand up for your own freedom and the freedom of others," he wrote. "If anyone thinks they can ban me, deter me, or prevent me and my city from doing so, they are gravely mistaken."

Parliamentary elections are due in Hungary on April 12. Opinion polls suggest Orban could face a close race against conservative challenger Peter Magyar, who did not openly back last year's Pride but has said he supports freedom of assembly.

Edited by: Sean Sinico