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The court considers it proven that the former finance minister caused millions of dollars in damages to the republic for infidelity. Talk about a wrong judgment and announce an appeal. Lobbyists Walter Meischberger, Peter Hochegger and other defendants were also sentenced with a non-final appeal. The “press” reported live from the great jury room.
The long-awaited first instance and therefore not final sentence has been reached in the largest corruption trial in Austrian judicial history: former Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser was sentenced to eight years in prison on Friday in the trial of the “Buwog” and “Terminal Tower” affairs status. The reason: breach of trust, falsification of evidence and acceptance of gifts by officials. After the trial, the 51-year-old announced “sad, shocked and scared” that he would immediately appeal and appeal against the annulment. “I expected an acquittal” and will continue to fight for it, because: “I know I am innocent.”
The court sees it differently: “Grasser and his accomplices” had a “plan” to enrich themselves illegally, the judge spoke of a “historical fact”. In the course of the privatization process of federal apartments in 2004, it disclosed information on the offer of a bidding consortium and, through Meischberger, passed it on to the competition, the “Austria Consortium”. A hidden commission payment of around 9.6 million euros flowed after the latter in tranches. “None of the defendants wanted anyone to find out about this commission,” said the judge, and “accepted” that this “would not be possible without abuse of authority.”
The procedure was similar in the course of the rental of Upper Austrian financial services at the Linz Terminal Tower. The Schöfensenate was convinced that there were bribes here too.
But not only Grasser, but also his godfather, former FPÖ general secretary and adviser Walter Meischberger, was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. After this was announced, he immediately left the grand jury room. Through his defense lawyer, Jörg Zarbl, he sent a message that action would be taken against the “inconceivable error of judgment” and that “questions of bias from the presiding judge” would be brought before the European Court of Human Rights.
Lobbyist Peter Hochegger, the only one of the large number of defendants who made a partial confession, was sentenced to six years in prison. Their remarks did not mitigate the penalty, Hohenecker said, because they could not have been described as repentant and beyond that they would have made no contribution to establishing the truth.
And those are not all the sentences: former Telekom board member Rudolf Fischer became one year, former Immofinanz head Karl Petrikovics two years, former RLB-OÖ board member Georg Starzer three years, the lawyer Gerald Toifl two years and the Swiss asset manager Norbert W. sentenced to 20 months in prison.
But there were also acquittals: five defendants who had to answer in the Terminal Tower matter were acquitted. And Meischberger was also exonerated: he was acquitted of the fraud charge in the “Villa Cause.”
All the details on the culprit and acquittal in the ticker review:
