Corruption trial against Strache: “Serious crime, not a trivial matter”

Austria’s ex-Vice Chancellor Strache is said to have helped a friendly clinic operator to change the law favorably during his term of office. On the first day of the trial, he denied all guilt.

Dozens of journalists are waiting in front of the doors of the Great Oath Chamber in the Vienna Regional Court for former FPÖ boss and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. It is the first criminal case to follow since the Ibiza video was released two years ago. The charge is: bribery. Strache hurries past those waiting: “No comment before the hearing, you can hear everything,” he said.

The prosecutor Silvia Thaller said at the beginning of the hearing that it was a matter of “serious crimes” and not “a minor matter” that Strache was charged with. As Vice Chancellor, the former FPÖ boss campaigned “very intensively” in 2018 for the business interests of the co-accused hospital entrepreneur Walter G., with whom Strache was friends. The “commitment” is “impressively documented,” said the senior public prosecutor at the business and corruption prosecutor’s office.

Change of law against favors?

Strache ensured that the private clinic was included in the so-called “private hospital financing fund”. This allows hospitals to settle accounts directly with the social security agencies. In return, the clinic entrepreneur donated 10,000 euros to the FPÖ and invited Strache and his wife to his private villa on Corfu in spring 2018, including a flight in a private jet. Strache, who indicated his current occupation as “entrepreneur”, rejected this representation at his hearing by the presiding judge.

He had not been to Corfu in 2018, but two years earlier – at a time when he was not yet Vice-Chancellor and thus an official. At that time he had booked and paid for a scheduled flight and was asked by the entrepreneur before the return flight whether he would not like to fly back with his private plane. He gave a total of 1,500 euros in cash and a tip of 200 euros to the pilot.

Strache shows memory gaps

In response to the judge’s reproaches as to why two FPÖ health politicians had stated in the interrogations that the draft law in favor of the clinic company had been initiated “from above”, that is, Strache, the 52-year-old ex-vice-chancellor replied he couldn’t remember.

The presiding judge will hear several witnesses by the end of the week who are supposed to provide information about the coming into existence of the law, from which the clinic entrepreneur has benefited. It is uncertain whether there will be a verdict on Friday, as previously planned by the court. If convicted, Strache would face a sentence of six months to five years.