The former head of cabinet of Justice Minister Clemens Jabloner is currently being questioned as the last person to provide information in the ÖVP investigative committee. The now suspended section head Christian Pilnacek chatted with the chief prosecutor about measures against individual prosecutors at the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA).
When asked about the chats by trial judge Christa Edwards, the officer explained that her chat contribution should not be understood as an endorsement of Pilnacek’s criticism of the WKStA. The WKStA explained to Minister of Justice Jabloner that it considers members of the “SoKo Tape” to be biased.
The Ministry has established that the WKStA cannot choose the members of the SoKo. Jabloner then instructed the WKStA that the investigators were not biased. When asked about Pilnacek’s thoughts about securing the accounts of the WKStA, the informant said that investigations were ongoing. She said “everything that was important” to Jabloner.
Tricky chats and Pilnacek’s complaints
It was tricky, as she writes in the chat, that Jabloner declared the investigators not biased, but had gotten to the media that the public prosecutor was investigating against a SoKo investigator. Pilnacek asked the respondent not to inform a certain prosecutor because he was a friend of a WKSta prosecutor.
Pilnacek “certainly” came by once a day to complain about how he was being portrayed in the media, the officer continued, and that they weren’t standing behind him and defending him. The situation was difficult for her because she knew the people at the WKStA and also Pilnacek. The chat with Pilnacek was once again a situation “where he got terribly upset again”.
The next step was the interpretation of a message to Pilnacek: The person providing information wrote “Yes, the OStA will take care of it!” on Pilnacek’s statement about the securing of accounts. Pilnacek was probably of the opinion that a certain WKStA prosecutor was responsible for the leaks regarding investigations against a SoKo investigator.