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- The Vienna Regional Court has sentenced former Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser to eight years in prison for breach of trust.
- The 51-year-old man was accused of giving a private investor a decisive clue in the sale of 60,000 federal apartments in 2004 to beat the competition.
- In return, according to the indictment, around 9.6 million euros, one percent of the purchase price, flowed into the pockets of the suspects.
- The defense is expected to appeal the sentence.
A total of 14 defendants appeared in court, including former Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser. Grasser, who served from 2000 to 2007, denied the allegation of causing harm to the republic.
The prosecution could not provide any solid evidence of the facts, says SRF correspondent Peter Balzli: “But Grasser’s statements in court were so blatantly implausible, frankly absurd, that the court found it proven that he was his insider Minister has deceased to the tune of a million. “
Fare bill discovered by accident
The whole story was discovered by chance, hence Balzli. In 2009, five years after the privatization of federal housing (Grasser had long since ceased to be minister), a private bank failed. “There a suspicious invoice was found. On the basis of this bill, the Corruption Prosecutor began investigating Grasser. “
That was the beginning of the Karl-Heinz Grasser case. Prosecutors should be happy now: they had always emphasized that no one was above the law. A spokeswoman for the Social Democrats said: ‘The mill of the rule of law grinds slowly. But today they did justice. “Otherwise, there are hardly any reactions, says Balzli:” That is also because it is considered certain that Grasser will challenge the trial. “
Then the matter could drag on for years, with corresponding billions in costs to the public.
