Bizarre Interceptor Procurement Process, in which ex-Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser testified on the last day as a witness to the events of 2002. In the end, it turned out – they’re barred! There were non-binding acquittals against two accused lobbyists.
He’s been dead for nearly 14 years – and yet Jörg Haider is the subject of the final day of the trial of two lobbyists over the purchase of the Eurofighter. The former Carinthian politician appeared in the agenda items of the accused (lawyer J. Pauer) under “J. Laider” – and a second name is also known: “KH Lasser”. Karl-Heinz Grasser, however, does not feel addressed, as he says with a smile to Christian Böhm. The former finance minister only had to go one floor to the Vienna court on Wednesday – on the 2nd floor he is charged with tax evasion and was allowed to “skip” his own trial because of the witness call…
“Where’s the show?”
He can barely remember what happened to the Eurofighter deal in 2002. Not to the English company “City Chambers” – which the accused lobbyists are said to have been in charge. And especially not from the Eurofighter’s 100 million Schilling money flow there, on which WKStA prosecutor Beatrix Winkler asked the well-known question about “Where is the service?” citing and can’t find it – because the deal with the government (then black and blue) was long overdue.
However, KHG remembers Haider’s “fickleness” well: “His political expediency was legendary. If the majority of the population is against it, so am I. Haider voted for it in the government, but in Carinthia he had ‘No to the Eurofighter’ pasted.”
“Amateur contract”
A Eurofighter manager defended the lobbyist’s contract, to which the examining magistrate Georg Olschak laconically remarked: “If you present something like this for the bar exam, you’ll never have to compete again, it’s so amateur!” Judge Christian Böhm did not acquit the lobbyists with legal force from allegations of infidelity. It has not been established with certainty whether the Eurofighter manufacturer EADS has suffered any damage at all. On the other hand, the allegations of infidelity are time-barred.
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.
