Austria far-right ex-vice chancellor acquitted of graft
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Loading... - Marie Bouwmeester
- 27 Jan 2023
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A Vienna court on Tuesday acquitted former vice chancellor and far right leader Heinz-Christian Strache of corruption in a retrial that overturned Strache's earlier conviction.
It is the second acquittal in cases stemming from the Ibizagate scandal, which eventually led to conservative Sebastian Kurz stepping down as chancellor in 2021.
Strache was "found not guilty" of favouritism toward a private hospital in exchange for hidden donations to his far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), Christina Salzborn, a spokeswoman for the Vienna criminal court, told AFP.
The disgraced 53-year-old politician had received a 15-month suspended prison sentence in August 2021 for accepting donations totalling €12,000 ($13,000) from the owner of the private clinic in Vienna.
The donations were in exchange for Strache initiating changes to the law that enabled such clinics to receive money from the public health insurance fund.
READ ALSO: ‘Ibizagate’: What you need to know about the Austrian political corruption scandal
But the 2021 verdict was overturned a year later and a retrial ordered because evidence in Strache's favour had not been taken into account.
During the second trial, the judge ruled that the prosecutors had not provided enough evidence to qualify the offence. Read More…
