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An Austrian court sentenced Heinrich Pecina to a second suspended prison term and a fine, who played an important role in Orbán’s takeover of all Hungarian print media. The verdict is not final, writes Népszava.
In the summer of 2017, Pecina was sentenced to suspended prison terms for fraud and dishonest treatment related to the Austria Hypo Bank scandal. According to the indictment, the bank issued bogus multi-million euro invoices on behalf of Vienna Capital Partners, which is owned by Pecina and has also managed Mediaworks, which publishes Népszabadság for many years.
The Klagenfurt court has now commuted the sentence to 18 months of conditional imprisonment and a fine of 144,000 euros, the previous 22 months of imprisonment with suspension and a fine of 288,000 euros.
Who is Heinrich Pecina?
Heinrich Pecina is best known to the Hungarian public as The Man Who Closed Népszabadság, although in the fall of 2016, when the newspaper was last published, he had been active in Hungarian political and business life for decades. He also did business under left-wing governments, and in recent years has become one of the main players in Fidesz’s media reserve efforts.
In January 2015, at Spéder’s suggestion, the government referred Mediaworks to Pecina. The Austrian’s task was to keep the papers in hand for a few years, including those of National Sports, Népszabadság, the World Economy and various county newspapers, and to transmit the group of companies if the interests of the government dictated. The agreement was entered into in accordance with Lajos Simicska’s intentions.
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