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Former Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser and former lobbyist Walter Meischberger harshly criticized the trial in the first instance in interviews in various newspapers. In the Buwog trial, Grasser was not legally sentenced to eight years, Meischberger to seven years in prison. Both emphasize their innocence and accuse the president of the senate Senate, Judge Marion Hohenecker, of bias.
In an interview with the “Kleine Zeitung”, Grasser accuses the judge of “looking biased” because of her husband’s tweets. “This trial has nothing to do with objectivity. If Islamist extremists are in prison for a few months in this country and then they are released to kill four people, then one has to think about how our constitutional state operates. The abusers of minors and those who, who commits crimes against life and physical integrity, receives less than me as innocent? ”he asks.
Grasser also accuses the judge of bias: “Before the trial, the judge was clear that I was guilty. When the verdict was delivered, he claimed there was an ‘overwhelming burden of proof’ before the trial began. Even my greatest enemies will admit … there is no evidence. “Furthermore, the accusation was already a” political vendetta of green and red against me. ” “Of course I made mistakes. But they must be strictly separate from the question of whether there has been criminal misconduct. And I was there, there was none.”
“The process ruined my existence”
In the “Kurier” interview, Grasser also talks about the economic consequences of the sentence for him, after previously it had had costs of 2.5 million euros for lawyers, experts, etc. “I believe that personal bankruptcy will not come in three years, it will come much earlier. This process has ruined my existence anyway, and with this trial I have a total loss: reputation is ruined, reputation stolen, honor cut off. This error in judgment portrays me as a criminal who has been sentenced to eight years in prison. They are hard blows in the pit of the stomach. “The only thing left is his family and his cohesion, which gives him the strength to continue fighting.
Serious attacks on the judiciary and the judge, Meischberger said in an interview with “Austria”: “The trial lasted three years and there was not a single test and I am sentenced to seven years in prison. That brings us back to very dark times in this country”. 70 years old “.
The judge spoke of an overwhelming burden of proof and therefore “lied,” according to Meischberger. “There is no evidence so I don’t understand. It is an ideologically motivated misjudgment. The judge was biased from the beginning. This bias blatantly increased during the trial.” He will go to the Court of Human Rights and fight it until the last instance. “This trial is inhumane, I can only call it political revenge. This process is a judicial scandal.”
“Justice has worked conscientiously”
There were reactions from some politicians. Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) said in the “Kurier”: “The judiciary worked conscientiously, although it took a long time. I am still impressed with the thoroughness with which the now-late MP Gabriela Moser handled the Buwog affair. I remember that. I also think about the Grasser stock transactions and other incompatibilities. That was a bit lazy long before the Buwog started to smell strong. “
NEOS party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger called Sunday’s trials tough at ORF’s “press hour.” It is gratifying for them that this also signifies a severe rejection of the friendship economy system.
The head of the Vienna FPÖ, Dominik Nepp, spoke critically on Twitter: “8 years for KHG, 5 months for the jihadists, this is ‘justice’ in Austria!” FPÖ national advisor Christian Hafenecker criticizes Grasser’s assignment in the media as former FPÖ finance minister and asks on Twitter: “#grasser was finance minister for 6 years. About two years for # FPÖ and then 4 years for the # ÖVP. He was also there on the federal board. Why does he always report on a former FPÖ finance minister? “
Alois Birklbauer, a criminal law expert at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, also commented on the sentence. Grasser received – not legally binding – eight years in prison, due to his qualification as a civil servant up to 15 years would have been possible. However, this provision was not explicitly applied by the court.
In short, Grasser’s verdict is “probably not mild, but definitely within the framework,” says Birklbauer in the “Kurier.” In general, judgments by a jury are difficult to combat. The fact that a process takes a long time does not speak against the quality of a process, he said on ORF radio. (apa)
