Live from the courtroom: Grasser, Meischberger and Hochegger guilty verdict

“As representatives of the Austrian Consortium, Petrikovics and Starzer promised an official (namely Grasser) … an advantage.”

The judge reads aloud that Grasser has abused his political function, has violated patrimonial interests and has not fulfilled his obligations.

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Grasser is standing, with his hands in front of his body, his eyes downcast. Your ticker can’t see his face. Meischberger has crossed his arms.

Grasser and the Buwog defendants are found guilty.

Judge Hohenecker opens the hearing and sends the photographers and camera crews. The whole process of pronouncing the verdict is mandatory, except for the person who reads the verdict and justifies it, he explains.

As always, the order of the seats is canceled by the defense. But today we will confess anyway.

Grasser enters the hall. As in the last 168 days of the trial, he does not take a seat on the dock before it begins. There’s a reason for this: Since he said he was innocent, there should be no photos of him on the pier.

And Karl-Heinz Grasser also came to the regional court on his fateful day.

One of his lawyers, Norbert Wess, is already waiting in the hall.

His colleague Ida Metzger has already discovered Walter Meischberger in the lobby, he is there with former ski jumper Hubert Neuper.

While almost none of the defendants are in the room, the ranks of media representatives have already been filled and the defense is largely present. Lay judges, who cannot be filmed or photographed, will only enter the room after the camera crews have left.

Due to the crown, the number of seats in the hall and in the gallery is limited. Every second seat must be vacated, journalists sit in a checkerboard pattern, had to register for today, and were assigned fixed seats. Despite the huge avalanche of media, everything runs smoothly.

… from the large courtroom of the jury in the Vienna Regional Criminal Court. It is a historic day. The main hearing of the largest corruption process in the history of the Second Republic comes to an end with the delivery of the verdict. We accompany you throughout the day.

It’s great that you’re here.