Charges have been brought against former Austrian Chancellor Kurz on suspicion of making false statements. It is about statements in the Ibiza Committee of Inquiry 2020. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.
In Austria, former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) has been charged. The Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) announced that the 36-year-old was accused of making false statements. Accordingly, it is about information that he made in June 2020 in the Ibiza investigative committee of the Austrian Parliament.
Specifically, Kurz is said to have downplayed his own role in the appointment of the head of the Öbag state holding company, Thomas Schmid. He was informed about the decision in advance, but did not participate further, according to his statement at the time. Based on chat messages, however, the public prosecutor assumes that the former head of government was very well involved in the personnel. From mid-2017 at the latest, Kurz and Schmid would have exchanged views on the subject on a regular basis.
According to the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters, the procedure should begin on October 18th. A spokeswoman said that two more days of negotiations on October 20 and 23 were scheduled. According to the court, in addition to Kurz, his former head of cabinet Bernhard Bonelli and the former director general of Casinos Austria, Bettina Glatz-Kremsner, are accused. The file includes several boxes, the criminal complaint more than 100 pages, it said.
Up to three years imprisonment
Kurz has always vehemently denied the allegations. “The allegations are false and we look forward to the truth finally coming to light and the allegations proving to be unfounded in court,” he wrote on the short message service X, formerly Twitter.
The WKStA has been investigating Kurz since spring 2021 after a complaint by the social democratic SPÖ and the liberal NEOS on suspicion of false statements. According to the authorities, the penalty for the alleged crime is up to three years in prison.
Kurz may also have an indictment in the so-called advertisement scandal. It’s about embellished surveys and government advertisements in tabloid newspapers that are said to have been paid for with taxpayers’ money. Several people are being investigated on suspicion of breach of trust, bribery and corruption. Here, too, Kurz denies the allegations.
Farewell to politics at the end of 2021
The former head of the ÖVP, once a highly valued hope for the conservatives throughout Europe, has twice headed a coalition in Austria. From 2017 to 2019, Kurz led an alliance between the ÖVP and the right-wing FPÖ. From 2020 to 2021 he was head of government in a coalition of the ÖVP and the Greens. In view of the allegations, he initially resigned from his posts in autumn 2021. In December 2021 he announced his complete departure from politics. He is now an entrepreneur and lobbyist.
The reason for all investigations was the Ibiza affair. In a video secretly recorded on the holiday island, the then FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache appeared susceptible to corruption. The coalition of ÖVP and FPÖ broke up in 2019.