The Public Prosecution Service for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) has appealed in the Prikraf case. The acquittals against former FPÖ chairman Heinz-Christian Strache and private clinic operator Walter Grubmüller are therefore not final. According to a ruling by the Vienna Supreme Court (OLG), the trial should have already been repeated.
The proceedings concerned the purchase of the law, which was charged by the WKStA, in connection with the Wiener Privatklinik Währing. The court, after repeating the evidence, saw no evidence of corruption. The court considered it unproven that at the time Grubmüller should have bought an unsolicited application from the opposition to include all private clinics in the financing fund for private hospitals (Prikraf) for donations to the FPÖ totaling 12,000 euros – which was meaningless in the parliamentary practice.
In the appeal procedure of the WKStA, a new decision must now be taken by the Vienna Oberlandesgericht. After the first round, he had already extensively criticized the convictions against Strache and Grubmüller – both had been sentenced to suspended prison terms.
Not least on this basis, both suspects were acquitted on Tuesday. Strache’s lawyer Johann Pauer responded to the now-difficult continuation of the proceedings at the request of APA with the words: “You don’t have to understand everything in life.”
Source: Krone
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