The ÖVP celebrates the following proceedings: the prosecution’s investigations against Clemens-Wolfgang Niedrist, chief of staff at the Ministry of Finance, and against justice spokeswoman Michaela Steinacker have been closed in court.
In a spring 2021 advertisement, the National Council member was accused of being a “hidden party donation” to a former Raiffeisen daughter. The Prosecutor’s Office for Economic and Corruption has now stopped the proceedings “due to the lack of verifiability of the objective and subjective facts”.
Suspicion of betrayal of secrets and false testimonies
Niedrist was already head of cabinet under Finance Minister Gernot Blümel, who resigned in the course of the corruption investigation against the ÖVP, and still is. The public prosecutor had brought him in as a suspect for a year and a half – in two cases: on the one hand after a complaint by MPs Jan Krainer (SPÖ) and Stephanie Krisper (NEOS) for false statements in the Ibiza 2021 inquiry committee and on the other hand because of suspicion of treason. secrets. This was based on a conversation that appeared between Niedrist and Christian Pilnacek, the head of the now-suspended Justice Section, about the seizure order for the search of the Treasury Department.
The investigations were eventually dropped by the Higher Regional Court at the end of August. “Deliberate concealment of relevant circumstances” is “not evident”, so the facts are “not fulfilled”, justified the OLG judge – who also criticized the StA and the red-pink question in the subcommittee.
Source: Krone
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