Austrian court acquits far-right leader in corruption retrial

Austria's former vice chancellor and ex-far-right leader Heinz Christian Strache (pictured) was found not guilty on Tuesday (10 January) by a Vienna court in a retrial for a corruption case involving party donations made by the owner of a private hospital.

Strache, who resigned in 2019 in another corruption scandal, was originally sentenced to a 15-month prison term in 2021 for Graft. However, a higher court ordered a retrial due to text messages that suggested Strache was innocent not being sufficiently taken into consideration.

While his appeal was pending, he did not spend any time in jail.

The case concerned whether there was a quid proquo in two donations to Freedom Party (FPO), of €2,000 and €10,000 by Walter Grubmueller. This was before the FPO formed a coalition with Sebastian Kurz's conservatives in December 2017.

2018 saw a legislative amendment that allowed the clinic to be charged directly by Austrian social insurance for certain procedures. This is a significant additional source of income.

According to APA, the judge said on Tuesday that there was no proof of corruption.

According to APA, the judge stated: "If the state accepts party donations exist, one can't assume that every party donation was illegal."

Since 2019, footage of Strache offering to fix state contracts was released. He also made allegations about corruption in Austrian politics. Kurz's conservative coalition collapsed shortly after he quit his post as vice-chancellor.

He was expelled from his party, and he failed to get another party into Vienna's City Council.

Strache said to reporters: "I accept the not guilty verdict with one laughing eye and one crying eye," after his ruling at a Vienna criminal tribunal.

Grubmueller was originally sentenced for a year in prison. He was later pronounced not guilty.

Anti-corruption prosecutors continue to investigate Strache in a wide-ranging investigation into the video sting.

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