Status: 07/29/2022 2:09 p.m
Former Austrian Vice Chancellor and FPÖ leader Strache has been acquitted of corruption charges. He was suspected of having brokered a supervisory board position in return for a donation.
In a second trial on suspicion of corruption, former FPÖ chairman Heinz-Christian Strache was acquitted. Strache was suspected of having helped a friend of his entrepreneur to a supervisory board position during the government of the ÖVP and FPÖ in Austria as vice chancellor in return for donations to an association close to the FPÖ.
The Vienna Regional Court did not consider the allegation of the public prosecutor’s office to be beyond doubt. The entrepreneur had intervened “ugly” in favor of his order. However, according to the judge, there is no evidence that Strache knew about the entrepreneur’s donation.
The entrepreneur was also acquitted. Both defendants had pleaded innocent. The judgment is not final.
“Don’t talk about a trivial offense”
A process from 2018 was negotiated. According to the indictment, Strache is said to have given a real estate entrepreneur a supervisory board position at the state motorway company Asfinag. In return, the entrepreneur donated 10,000 euros to the FPÖ-affiliated association. “We’re not talking about a trivial offense,” said the prosecutor at the beginning of the trial.
Strache’s lawyer denied all allegations against his client. He explained that the politician and the real estate developer did not have a relationship of purpose with the goal of job smuggling, but rather a long-standing friendship. The donation is not punishable because it only took place after the appointment to the supervisory board.
guilty verdict last year
In another corruption case, Strache was sentenced to 15 months probation in 2021 for bribery. He is said to have helped the owner of a private clinic, a friend, to bring about an advantageous change in the law. Strache has appealed against this verdict.
Strache became Vice Chancellor under Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in 2017. He resigned in 2019 in the course of the so-called Ibiza scandal, which had triggered investigations by the business and corruption prosecutor’s office not only against Strache, but also against Kurz and his environment.