The mother of Hungarian Cristiana Barsoni Arcidiaconu, CEO of ABC, which sold pagers to Lebanon that were recently bombed, said her daughter is under protection by Hungarian intelligence because she has received threats.

Beatrix Barsoni Arcidiacono, Cristiana's mother, told the Associated Press that her daughter had received threats after the pagers exploded in Lebanon.

Beatrix added that the Hungarian intelligence service moved her daughter to a safe place after the bombings, and the Hungarian authorities advised her daughter not to speak to the public.

The mother explained that her daughter had no role in blowing up the pagers, that she was merely an intermediary, and that the devices were not manufactured in Hungary or passed through it.

According to Christiana's LinkedIn account, she holds a PhD in particle physics from University College London, and also conducted research with retired physics professor Akos Kover at the same university.

Cover told The Associated Press that he had published articles in collaboration with Christiana, but had no knowledge of her other activities.

7 languages

Kristiana, 49, speaks seven languages, her Budapest apartment is filled with paintings she has drawn, and her career includes humanitarian work that has taken her across Africa and Europe, Reuters reports.

In an attempt to uncover the mystery of the woman, Reuters interviewed her acquaintances and former colleagues, and the interviews resulted in painting a picture of a woman with a dazzling degree of intelligence, but her career path was intermittent and constantly changing, with a series of short-term jobs that she never settled into, despite filling her CV with work over the years without any breaks.

Reuters quoted an acquaintance who, like others, had met her at social events in Budapest - and who asked not to be named - as saying that she seemed like someone "easy to use."

"She is well-intentioned, and her character is not like that of businessmen and women. She is more like someone who is always trying something new, who quickly believes in things and is enthusiastic about them," he added, noting that she was looking for a source of income because she wanted to leave her job.

According to news published yesterday, Friday, on the Brussels-based EU Observer website, Christiana participated in supplying explosive communications devices to Lebanon.

The news reported that she worked as a "collaborating expert" at the European Commission's European Executive Agency for Education and Culture between 2021 and 2023.

IAEA trainee

Her resume lists her work as a "project manager" at the IAEA in 2008 and 2009 and her organization of a nuclear research conference. The agency said its records show Cristiana Arcidiaco interned there for eight months.

She described herself in one of her bios as a "board member of the Earthchild Institute," an educational and environmental charity in New York, but the institute's founder, Donna Goodman, told Reuters that Parsone Arcidiaco had no role there at all.

In her statement to the American NBC channel, Christiana admitted that she worked for the Hungarian company "BAC", which was found to have sold explosive communications devices in Lebanon, and that she was "just an intermediary" in supplying these devices.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 37 people were killed and more than 3,250 others were injured, including children and women, in a wave of explosions that hit Pager and ICOM wireless communication devices in Lebanon, while Beirut and Hezbollah held Israel responsible for the attack.

Reuters quoted an acquaintance who, like others, had met her at social events in Budapest - and who asked not to be named - as saying that she seemed like someone "easy to use."

"She is well-intentioned, and her character is not like that of businessmen and women. She is more like someone who is always trying something new, who quickly believes in things and is enthusiastic about them," he added, noting that she was looking for a source of income because she wanted to leave her job.

According to news published yesterday, Friday, on the Brussels-based EU Observer website, Christiana participated in supplying explosive communications devices to Lebanon.

The news reported that she worked as a "collaborating expert" at the European Commission's European Executive Agency for Education and Culture between 2021 and 2023.

Source: Agencies