Turquoise excitement – fuss about Kurz-Richter: that’s what the case is about

Guilty of false testimony, eight months old, was the invalid verdict against ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) that judge Radasztics pronounced last Friday. The previously dazzling political star feels – as he says – ‘unfairly’ treated.

The judge had been a thorn in the side of Kurz’s legal team even before the first day of the trial. They wanted a change of judges because Radasztics was biased due to alleged contacts with former Green MP and short-term ‘enemy’ Peter Pilz.

There is no personal relationship or a relationship of trust with Pilz, the lawyer replied in October.

Did Radasztics do something wrong?
What the judge did not mention: In May 2023, he was punished in two cases, both dating from his time as a prosecutor. In 2018, Radasztics informed the then National Councilor Pilz about the existence of an instruction in the context of the Eurofighter procedure – in the wake of an official appointment and in the presence of another prosecutor.

Importantly, Radasztics did not share any research results from the file, but only passed on administrative internal information. Pilz would have received the previously secret information anyway. The existence of the directive was communicated to the Eurofighter U Committee a short time later. Pilz therefore had a time advantage through Radasztics, which was disciplinary but not criminally relevant.

ÖVP: “Appearance of bias”
The judge was also convicted and fined for this by the Oberlandesgericht Graz. So why the excitement? The ruling was not recorded in the Legal Information System (RIS) until Monday. So after the verdict in the short trial. During a hastily called press conference, ÖVP Secretary General Christian Stocker came out in support of his ex-boss. He notes an “appearance of bias”.

Stocker referred to the fact that the Kurz judge had informed Pilz several years ago, as has now become widely known, that certain parts of the Eurofighter files had to be returned to the Ministry of Defense for reasons of national security. However, Stocker was unable to explain during his press conference to what extent this is related to the short trial.

Stocker has a lot of questions
The statements of the ÖVP man – himself a lawyer – show that the People’s Party also knows that the case is probably less spectacular than it initially sounds. At the beginning of his statement, Stocker made it clear that “the following statements should not be construed as criticism of the judiciary in general and case law in particular.”

He asked whether Radasticzs should have informed the public about the disciplinary decision. “Probably not. Should he have? In my opinion, yes.” Stocker also wonders, “Would the proceedings have turned out differently if we had known this before the trial began?”

apples and pears
Friedrich Forsthuber, president of the Vienna Regional Court, clearly contradicts Stocker’s statements: “This is of course part of a PR process that is taking place here to attack the person of the judge,” he told the “Ö1 -Mittagsjournal”. “Apples and oranges” would be mixed here. “The disciplinary procedure has absolutely nothing to do with the conduct of the current procedure against former Chancellor Kurz.”

According to the Graz High Court, the fact that the ruling was only published on Monday – just three days after the verdict against Kurz and Bonelli – was a coincidence; the anonymization took a lot of time.

Criticism from the coalition partner
The Greens and the SPÖ told Stocker to refrain from “calling politicians to the independent judiciary.” “Press conferences about conspiracy theories” are actually only known from the PVV, and there are all too many of them, says Green Secretary General Olga Voglauer in a broadcast.

Stocker would be lying to his own wallet: “The general secretary of the ÖVP says that his goal is to prevent doubts about the judiciary, but he himself spreads them by unfairly mixing disciplinary cases and criminal proceedings and making connections that are not there. As a lawyer, Christian Stocker should know better.” Jan Krainer (SPÖ) discovered that the ÖVP “undermined the foundations of the republic in its blind zeal with which it defended Kurz and the Kurz system.”

Short’s lawyer Otto Dietrich, as well as Bernhard Bonelli’s lawyer Werner Suppan, announced immediately after the verdict that they would appeal on the grounds of nullity, guilt and punishment. The Vienna Supreme Court must now consider this.