Two days after Sebastian Kurz, another political trial takes place in the grand jury courtroom. This time, however, in St. Pölten. The former Lower Austrian sports councilor Petra Bohuslav (ÖVP) must take his place in the dock. She is accused by the WKStA of breach of trust in connection with the payment of 2.8 million euros in financing for the multi-purpose hall Multiversum and the now bankrupt Werner Schlager Academy in Schwechat.
It is much tougher than the trial in Vienna against the ex-chancellor. Mr. Rat interrupts the defendant’s introductory statement after just a few sentences: “That leads nowhere,” he says, and the interrogation begins. He leads it so resolutely that the now commercial director of the Vienna State Opera repeatedly falls, his voice shaking. “This is not an interview, but an interrogation of the suspect,” Mr Rat warns the 58-year-old when she does not answer his questions specifically. “For me, the project has always been very special and deserves support. “I don’t know what I did wrong,” said the former ÖVP politician, visibly shocked by the WKStA’s indictment, which carries a severe penalty of up to ten years in prison.
First payment before financing application
“The first tranche of financing was disbursed in 2010 without a decision and without a financing agreement in place,” the senior prosecutor explained. There is also no decision from the municipal council. The prosecutor is certain that Bohuslav was aware that the entry requirements had not been met. The judge was also surprised by the fact that the first installment was paid out before a financing application was even submitted: “It is as if someone who has not been legally convicted is asked to serve his sentence,” he uses as an analogy.
The case was already in court
The lawyer of one of the two co-suspects, now retired government officials, contradicts the prosecutor: “I have not seen an accusation that is so weakly founded in a long time.”
Especially since a trial in the case in Vienna in the spring of 2022, in which former table tennis star Werner Schlager and former Schwechat mayor Hannes Fazekas (SPÖ) were also accused, ended in nine acquittals. Only the ex-director of the Multiverse received an 18-month suspended sentence.
Source: Krone
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