Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was charged on Friday with giving false statements to parliament, the penalty for which is up to three years in prison.
Sebastian Kurz, who became the youngest ever Chancellor of Austria in 2017 at the age of 30, was once dubbed as a political ‘Wunderkind’ before being forced to resign in 2021 amid a series of corruption scandals.
On Friday, the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) released a 108-page criminal complaint against the former chancellor, alleging that he had given false statements before a parliamentary into an alleged corruption scandal that collapsed his first government in 2019.
Besides Kurz, his former chief of staff Bernhard Bonelli and a third person were indicted at the state court in Vienna. The trial, which is set to commence by October, will focus on whether Kurz lied to the parliament over his involvement in the appointment of former general secretary of the finance ministry to the state holding company Öbag, the Kurier reports.
The ex-chancellor had claimed that while he knew of the appointment of his close political ally to the position, he had no role in the decision. Yet the public prosecutor’s office claims otherwise, citing seised chat messages indicating Kurz’s involvement.
According to Austrian criminal law expert Robert Kert, it was not illegal for the chancellor to have been involved in the decision to appoint Schmid to the board of Öbag, which manages several large companies in the country including telecom and energy giants.
It would be illegal for Kurz to have lied to the parliament about his involvement in the decision, however. Kert also said that the case will not hinge on whether Kurz intentionally lied, but merely on whether he “seriously thought it possible” that he was misleading the parliament.
Kurz said Saturday that he plans to step down after a prosecutors’ announcement that he is a target of a corruption investigation. https://t.co/OB1zMJr13A
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 9, 2021
Schmid has also reportedly told prosecutors that Kurz was aware of public funds being misappropriated between 2016 and 2018 to allegedly bribe news media organisations in Austria in exchange for favourable coverage of his liberal-conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) including manipulation of public polls to create the perception that Kurz’ government was more popular than it was in reality.
Kurz is facing a second trial for the media scandal, however, he has yet to be charged in connection with any criminality. According to prosecutors, the former chancellor was not directly involved in orchestrating the payoffs to the media, however, they claim that he instigated the acts and was the beneficiary of it.
Responding to the charges levied on Friday, Kurz, who has since gone on to take a Silicon Valley gig with Peter Thiel, said on social media that it was “not surprising” that prosecutors “decided to file a criminal complaint despite 30 exculpatory testimonies.”
“The accusations are false and we look forward to the truth finally coming to light and the accusations proving to be unfounded in court,” he continued.
“It is remarkable, however, that the media are once again informed about the status of the proceedings before those affected, and this is not entirely uncritical in terms of the rule of law,” Kurz concluded.