Back in court – trial: Mensdorff-Pouilly and the amounts of paper

He didn’t have to put much on the table for his interlocutors and clients, explains “Graf Ali” Mensdorff-Pouilly Judge Tolstiuk in court room 203 of the Vienna Criminal Court. Because: “Large amounts of paper were not desired.” It’s – it has to be said again – about lobbying, arms deals, interceptors, friends, contracts, accounts – and some two million Eurofighters, reportedly on a Mensdorff company account. of which EUR 300,000 is entitled to repayment of a loan.

Where have the millions gone, where have they gone?
Both the Economics and Corruption Prosecutor, WKStA, and “Count Ali” himself want to know where the remaining 1.7 million are. The main character, his friend and gun lobbyist Tim Landon, died in 2007. He brought Mensdorff to British Aerospace, later Eurofighter: “Otherwise I wouldn’t have set foot in it!”

The fact that Mensdorff is being charged again with the same case and allegations is still a bone of contention and pivotal in this old newly rolled out trial. Because he was already acquitted in 2013 (!) – the then judge said after extensive evidence: “The thing stinks, but it doesn’t stink enough!” The new criminal complaint was also rejected because of double punishment and also the limitation period.

But the higher regional court decided to stop it, causing the sober lawyer Sascha König to almost foam at the mouth: “If the defendant’s name was not Mensdorff and if he had not had a certain closeness to the ÖVP, this process would have been stopped long ago. !”

“It was not my job to produce paper”“
Judge Tolstiuk asks a few precise questions. Such as Mensdorff’s ‘reporting obligation’ to the British. He counters: “My job was not to produce paper, but to identify and report links. For example, that Bulgaria will certainly not buy a Eurofighter because the Prime Minister’s wife has studied in the United States. So the Americans got their opportunity.”

“Contracts with a friend? Well, definitely not”
And Mr. Rat is trying to explore the path of the money that has flowed. Maybe through contracts? Then the accused nobleman became angry: “Contracts with a friend? Of course not!’ He would have gladly lent his account to Tim Landon “for his private transfers back and forth.” Money has no thing.” To say with hindsight that all this would have been the case in 2005, “or earlier, today none of that works anymore”. Chief Prosecutor Beatrix Winkler just nods – she wants to get new witnesses for the money laundering. To be continued on Wednesday. And in Sept.