There will also be no verdict on the fifth day of the trial – witnesses could not be questioned via video conference. The accused was also questioned, he denies the allegations. The man in custody is being charged by two witnesses whose previous statements partially contradict each other.
According to the public prosecutor, the private detective is said to have handed over a total of 1.25 kilos of cocaine with a purity of at least 70 percent near the Lower Austrian city of Haag (Amstetten district), in Salzburg and Upper Austria in 2017 and 2018 at a gram price of 40 euros to an acquaintance. According to the indictment, H. should have paid off debts or improved his dreary financial situation.
Threatened mother of a witness
The 41-year-old is burdened by a former business partner and his former lover. The man had stated that he originally wanted to “clean the slate” in his trial for drug trafficking in Salzburg and testify against H. Because his mother was threatened by two men shortly before his main hearing, he then decided differently and only charged the 41-year-old afterwards. The man suspects that H. was behind the intimidation. That has been disputed.
On Wednesday, the woman living in Serbia was to be questioned as a witness via video conference. The interrogation “could not be accomplished,” said the judge at the beginning of the trial. “Today will not be the last day of the trial,” he said. The defense lawyers maintained their application for the witness to be heard and continued to disagree with the reading of her statements. “This will not speed up the proceedings,” the judge said of the accused.
Survey “too short notice”
Since December, the court has “made every effort” to expedite the request for legal assistance to the Serbian authorities, the judge said. Despite urgent e-mails, however, it was not possible to carry out the survey. The reason given by the Serbian side is that it was “too short notice”, the judge said. The video conference is now scheduled to take place in March, a date has not yet been set.
The topic on Wednesday was the motive suspected by the public prosecutor’s office – financial problems. The judge questioned the sale of company shares by H. According to the defendant, this was connected to a project. However, he denied money worries: he was able to pay expenses such as rent and cars as well as living expenses. Regarding the Ibiza video, the judge said: “I was very reluctant to bring this issue into the process”, but he must now make it an issue. According to the judge, a message suggests that the accused expected a cash payment from “Spiegel”. “I neither expected nor received any money,” emphasized H. In this regard, he also referred to ongoing civil proceedings in Germany. “Neither the ‘Spiegel’ nor the ‘SZ’ nor anyone else paid money for the publication of the video,” the accused stated.
“I’ve been living in fear”
H. was also asked about news such as “Slowly I can find a rope and a high branch” and “I want to die. These red idiots aren’t making any headway when it comes to money.” The 41-year-old reported sleepless nights and the avoidance of social contacts because of the Ibiza video: “I lived in fear.” The accused also said that after the publication of the recording it became known that there had been contact with the SPÖ.
“In the beginning it was about black money laundering and corruption. That’s something that doesn’t particularly surprise me in political circles,” said the 41-year-old about the origin of the video. But what then shocked him was, among other things, “the intention to manipulate elections” and “connections in Eastern European circles”. H. commented on the video: “Private profit was not a motivator for me”. At one point, the defendant said he was so involved himself that he paid a low five-figure sum for the admission. It was planned to secure the former bodyguard of ex-vice chancellor and FPÖ party leader Heinz-Christian Strache via a trust account.
“Hot media project”
After the additional questions to the accused, readings were on the agenda. Among other things, H.’s letter to Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen was quoted verbatim in order to protect himself and those around him. He got involved in a “sensitive media project”, with the video he wanted to show the “vulnerability of the FPÖ to corruption”, it said. He was aware of the risk to a certain extent, but “didn’t expect such a political change,” wrote the 41-year-old with regard to the Freedom Party’s participation in government at the time. On Wednesday afternoon, the discussion of an expert report was planned.
The defense lawyers have spoken of fabricated and politically motivated allegations in relation to the indictment. H. brought up the fact that the witness is said to have received money or benefits in kind in the form of a lawyer’s fee for false allegations against him. The person concerned denies this. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
H. is said to have produced the video on which the then FPÖ boss and Vice Chancellor Strache and FPÖ club chairman Johann Gudenus can be seen in a villa on Ibiza in conversation with an alleged oligarch’s niece. After the recordings were published in May 2019, not only did Strache and Gudenus lose their jobs, but the turquoise-blue coalition also broke. The result was a new election.
Source: Nachrichten
