His former head of cabinet, Bernhard Bonelli, received a suspended prison sentence of six months for the same offense. The judgment for Kurz concerned statements regarding the appointment to the supervisory board at ÖBAG. There was an acquittal regarding the appointment of Thomas Schmid to the board.
The guilty verdict for Kurz specifically concerns the appointment to the supervisory board of the state holding company ÖBAG. Kurz was questioned regarding his involvement in the U-Committee. “Overall, you give the impression that you essentially had nothing to do with it,” said presiding judge Michael Radasztics in his verdict. However, statements in the evidentiary process painted a different picture, said Radasztics.
Kurz was acquitted in relation to Thomas Schmid’s appointment to the ÖBAG board. “You undoubtedly knew that Schmid had this interest,” the judge also referred to the ex-Chancellor’s relevant statements in the U-Committee and: “You also viewed this favorably and Schmid saw it as encouragement.” The court was once once more unable to follow the reinterpretation of the chat to Schmied “you’ll get everything you want anyway” into a slowing down of Schmid.
Both of their prison sentences will be conditionally suspended with a probationary period of three years. Furthermore, both are ordered to reimburse the costs of the proceedings. Basically, it is the case that an objectively false statement is not punishable per se, the simplest form of intent is necessary, that is, “he must have seriously considered it possible” to have made a false statement, and this is the conclusion he came to Court. Although the judge agreed with Kurz and Bonelli that the situation before a court was different than before a committee of inquiry, it was still legally assessed in the same way.
The judge found Thomas Schmid’s statements credible in their entirety. He never appeased his own actions, “and you can’t blame him for wanting to harm Kurz at all costs.” The questioning of the two Russians did not harm credibility. “The fact that two people perceive almost the same thing is very unbelievable.” Furthermore, as is well known, Schmid has applied for leniency status, but this application has not yet been processed, said the judge. “If I may say so, I think it’s completely out of the world that he meets two foreign Russians in the summer and talks regarding their lives.”
Regarding the argument regarding the lack of testimony, which was repeatedly brought up by the defense, the judge explained that the supervisory board members interviewed had all said the same thing, “but you don’t know what other people have discussed before, so their statements should be treated with caution.”
Both Kurz and Bonelli were acquitted of allegations regarding statements regarding the Schmid-Schiefer agreement, “it would not have been clear at an objective level whether the statements were false” as well as allegations in connection with the appointment of the ÖBAG board of directors. “I consider this much-discussed ‘well’ to be irrelevant for further assessment.”
Even following the guilty verdict, Kurz willingly faced the media and interpreted the outcome of the proceedings from his perspective: “I was acquitted of two out of three allegations.” On the question of the appointments to the supervisory board, he stuck to his description that he found the condemnation to be “very unfair.” Kurz is now hoping for a successful appeal: “I am very optimistic that we will be right in the second instance.”
ePaper
info By clicking on the icon you can add the keyword to your topics.
info
By clicking on the icon you open your “my topics” page. They have of 15 keywords saved and would have to remove keywords.
info By clicking on the icon you can remove the keyword from your topics.
Add the topic to your topics.
