The Vienna Regional Court sentenced former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to eight months of suspended imprisonment. He was found guilty of giving false testimony to a parliamentary committee that was investigating the corruption case known as Ibizagate, Heute reports.
The charges relate to appointments to the supervisory board of the state investment holding ÖBAG.
The former head of Kurtz’s cabinet was also found guilty of giving false testimony. Bernhard Bonelli, he was sentenced to six months suspended imprisonment. The probationary period for both will be three years. The ex-chancellor was acquitted of some of the charges.
Kurz said he intends to appeal the verdict, which he called “very unfair,” OE24 quoted him as saying.
“I was acquitted of two of the three charges,” he said. “I am very optimistic that in the second instance we will be right,” the former head of government added.
The scandal, which became known as “Ibizagate”, led to the resignation of the country’s vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache in May 2019. It began after the Suddeutsche Zeitung and Spiegel published a video recording in which Strache, while in a villa in Ibiza, talks with a woman who introduced herself as the niece of a Russian oligarch and called herself Alena Makarova. According to the recording, the discussion was about the possibility of some Russians sponsoring Strache’s election campaign in exchange for government orders and the purchase of the Austrian Kronen Zeitung newspaper. The woman turned out to be a student from Montenegro with no connection to Russia.
Kurz took over as chancellor in December 2017, becoming the youngest head of government in Europe: at that time he was 31 years old. In May 2019, the government faced a vote of no confidence due to Ibizagate, and Kurz resigned. However, following the results of early parliamentary elections, he returned to his post.
2024-02-24 03:15:00
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