The former FPÖ politician was accused of helping a friend who owned a private clinic to amend the law in an advantageous manner. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
A verdict has been reached in the corruption process against Austria’s former Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. The court in Vienna sentenced the politician to 15 months probation for bribery. One co-defendant received one year probation. The judgments are not yet final.
The indictment accused Strache of helping a friend who owned a private clinic to amend the law in an advantageous manner. In return, donations are said to have flowed to the right-wing FPÖ, whose chairman Strache was at the time. Strache was charged with bribery, the clinic owner friend Walter Grubmüller with bribery.
Both have so far denied the corruption allegations. Strache testified in court that he was not campaigning for this issue because of the money, but because he felt it was unfair that the state’s private hospital funding fund refused to work with the beauty clinic. The clinic finally got access to the fund in 2018 when Strache was Vice Chancellor.
The public prosecutor’s office for business and corruption, which initiated numerous proceedings against politicians from both parties after the government of ÖVP Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his FPÖ Vice Strache were overthrown as a result of the Ibiza video, was convinced that Grubmüller, with a party donation of 10,000 euros and an invitation to Corfu Strache had made a deal for him with the coalition partner. A second donation of 2000 euros only became known during the proceedings
The coalition between the FPÖ and the conservative ÖVP under Kurz burst in May 2019 after the Ibiza video was published. In the covertly filmed recordings, Strache spoke about questionable methods of party funding and political influence. The 52-year-old now leads the small party team HC Strache.