First interview after imprisonment: the man behind the Ibiza video sees himself as “innocent”.

2023-04-17 05:07:06

food – After two and a half years in prison, the maker of the Ibiza video Julian Hessenthaler speaks exclusively to CORRECTIV regarding the creation of the Ibiza video and his imprisonment in Austria. Internal documents also show further doubts regarding the criminal case once morest him.

In the first interview following his release, Julian Hessenthaler reports in detail regarding the creation of the Ibiza video and accuses the Austrian judiciary of having wrongly sentenced him. He is now going to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The detective’s lawyer lodged a complaint there.

“Principal officials from the interior and justice ministries as well as the Federal Criminal Police Office tried to “silence” Hessenthaler “before and following the publication of the “Ibiza video” by criminal prosecution of drug offenses,” says the complaint CORRECTIV The court that convicted Hessenthaler declined to comment on the complaint before the ECHR.

Internal documents from the process, which CORRECTIV has now been able to see, reinforce the doubts regarding the proceedings once morest Hessenthaler. A letter from the prison shows that the public prosecutor’s office was able to read the lawyer’s mail themselves. It was to be handed over to the inmates “only following censorship had taken place”. CORRECTIV also has documents that show that cell phone surveillance was carried out at the office of Julian Hessenthaler’s German lawyer in Berlin. The judge also gives different statements by a witness for the prosecution in the verdict.

Julian Hessenthaler at large

Hessenthaler was released early from prison on April 7 for good behavior. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison primarily for drug possession.

Hessenthaler became known as the author of the “Ibiza video”, which triggered one of the biggest political scandals in Europe in 2019. On the holiday island of Ibiza, Hessenthaler organized and secretly filmed a meeting of two FPÖ leaders with an alleged oligarch’s niece. The film shows the then head of the right-wing populist FPÖ and later Vice-Chancellor of Austria, Heinz-Christian Strache, and his close confidant Johann Gudenus, also a FPÖ politician at the time, in conversation regarding possible corruption.

They discuss ways of illegal party funding and using government contracts in exchange for campaign support. Specifically: the purchase of the high-circulation Kronen Zeitung as a potential paper for the party in return for government construction contracts. The publication of the video led to the government crisis under the then Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Hessenthaler, who worked as a detective, was later sentenced to three and a half years in prison in Austria for drug trafficking and forgery. The allegation had nothing to do with the production of the Ibiza video, which itself was not punishable. In Austria there were always doubts regarding the evidence in court proceedings.

70 minute exclusive interview

The proximity of European rights to Russia was one of the motives for the Ibiza video, Hessenthaler told CORRECTIV. He was “of the persistent conviction” that there had been massive efforts by the Russian intelligence services “to influence political decision-makers in Europe.”

In the 70-minute exclusive interview with CORRECTIV, Hessenthaler talks regarding how the video was planned and what consequences it had for him followingwards.

You can read the complete research under the following link:

You can watch the video interview with Hessenthaler here:

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