The suspended section head Christian Pilnacek had justified himself as a witness. Fuchs has to answer for breach of official secrecy and false testimony in the Ibiza investigative committee (penalties of up to three years in prison). He pleaded not guilty.
Fuchs is said to have passed on to Pilnacek at the end of 2020 parts of the file about a complaint by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) against a journalist who had written a critical report about the authority. Which Fox denies.
- ZIB 1: Trial start against Viennese OStA Fuchs
For the prosecution, however, based on the chronological reconstruction of the day on which the report from the WKStA landed at the OStA, there is no doubt that the inadmissible leak could only have taken place between Fuchs and Pilnacek. The latter is said to have later forwarded the file to another editor via cell phone. The allegation of false testimony is aimed at Fuchs’ appearance in the Ibiza Committee in March 2021, where he stated that he could not remember whether he had passed on parts of the file.
Source: Nachrichten
