In December 2018, ex-FPÖ politician Peter Westenthaler wanted the ankle bracelet and thus out of prison before Christmas. The then FPÖ leader would help him. He tried according to chats. Failed.
A special episode appeared in the documents of the U Commission: chat traffic between ex-FPÖ politician Westenthaler and former FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache.
It is December 7, 2018. Peter Westenthaler is in prison for fraud and infidelity. He sends a chat message: “Dear HC! I am desperate and devastated. I would like from December 21st. the anklet. Today I found out that for bureaucratic reasons I would no longer receive it before Christmas, but rather in January. (…) Dear HC, I beg you to help me. I just want to be with my family for Christmas and New Year. Please!”
Strache’s efforts were unsuccessful
Westenthaler sends further requests to the FPÖ leader. Short answer Strache on December 13: “I will ask JM (Minister of Justice Moser, note) about it.” Westenthaler: “Thank you, it would be urgent. (…) I will never forget this for the rest of my life.”
Strache’s efforts have had little success. He was told that unfortunately the ankle bracelet was not a must, but an option.
‘IS terrorist got his ankle bracelet at the first opportunity’
Westenthaler continues to complain that he really wants to go to his sick mother. And anyway, people like ‘Graf Mensdorff’ or an ‘IS terrorist’ would have been given the ankle bracelet at the first opportunity. It’s all random, ‘a red prison warden who wants to harass me. There’s no other way to explain that on January 3. can put on an ankle bracelet, but on December 21. not.”
Strache added: “Unfortunately, you are completely at the mercy of the judiciary here.” And further: “Unfortunately I can’t do anything about it.”
Convicted of fraud and breach of trust
Westenthaler was sentenced to two years in prison, eight months of which were suspended, in a case involving one million in financing to the Bundesliga and a payment of 300,000 euros from the Austrian Lotteries to his ex-party BZÖ for serious fraud and breach of trust.
Westenthaler finally received the ankle bracelet on December 27. Before that, he served about four months of his sentence in Vienna-Simmering prison. On January 31, 2019, he finally took off the ankle monitor and has been a free man ever since.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
