Image: Swietelsky
After a truly short trial, three defendants were convicted of breach of trust in the Leoben Regional Court yesterday. They had diverted and resold tens of thousands of liters of diesel and building materials from the construction site of the Semmering Base Tunnel.
The proceedings against three of the original six suspects had to be repeated following a decision by the Supreme Court (OGH). The three men who confessed pleaded guilty and were sentenced to imprisonment, which is not final. Actually, the repetition of the procedure should have lasted six days, and a judgment should not be made until the end of next week. But things turned out differently: The three defendants, aged between 37 and 50, fully confessed. At the first trial in 2021, two of them still denied the crimes they were accused of.
Specifically, it was about diverting diesel from the construction site, which was then sold illegally to farmers in the area. Building materials were also stolen on a large scale. The damage was in the millions. The first accused, who had already confessed at the 2021 trial, remained responsible.
This time, however, the other suspects surprisingly confessed. “Where did the change of heart come from?” Judge Roman Weiß wanted to know. “At some point you have to come to your senses. I’ve been living with existential fears for four years,” explained one of the accused. “How naïve can you be if you let seven truck trains drive into a meadow with diesel, let farmers tap the diesel for hours and you think that it won’t be discovered?” the judge asked. “You can describe it in many words: stupid, arrogant, megalomaniac,” answered the 37-year-old defendant insightfully. The third suspect, who also confessed this time, burst into tears during the interrogation: “I stand by it.” In 20 years of his entrepreneurship, he never owed anyone money. That is why he has already made full compensation for the damage and reimbursed 567,000 euros to the damaged construction companies.
Because of the confessions, the judge decided not to question any other witnesses, and to the surprise of all involved, the evidentiary proceedings were completed after only two hours of trial. Two of the men received conditional prison sentences of between 10 and 18 months. The third accused, however, received an unconditional prison sentence of three years and three months. All three accepted the verdict.
Source: Nachrichten
