His ex-colleague Katia Wagner sued him because he wrongly described a memory protocol she had made about a dinner with him to the daily newspaper “Der Standard” as “fictitious”. The judgment is not final.
Vienna. Like several other women, Wagner accuses Fellner of sexual harassment, which the “Austria” publisher vehemently denies. In the course of this case, an article appeared in the “Standard” at the end of May, which revolves around Wagner’s memory protocol. In this it is recorded that Fellner asked Wagner at a dinner in April 2015, for example, which dress she was wearing and whether he should “zip it up briefly”. He also said to her that he loved her and that he hoped that this would be appreciated and reciprocated. Sooner or later he would have to marry her anyway and she was a “super beautiful creature” and “horny”.
During his interrogation, Fellner initially stated that he had not made the statements made against him. He doubted that Wagner would be able to reproduce the wording so precisely after such a long time and remarked that he could only “rudimentarily” remember the content of the conversation at dinner. However, it is “unthinkable” that he should have asked her to zip up her dress. The fact that he would have to marry her sooner or later was also “definitely not”. He also drew attention to an inconsistency, according to which they did not go to Laa an der Thaya on April 16, 2015, as noted, but to Kitzbühel.
Wagner’s lawyer, Michael Rami, feared after Fellner’s interrogation that Fellner would not take it too seriously with the truth. Surprisingly, he produced an audio recording and an audio transcript of the dinner. Wagner made the recording without Fellner’s knowledge. “Every single utterance made against you was so popular,” said Rami.
After Fellner had briefly discussed with his lawyers, he pleaded guilty. He and his lawyers made it clear that the audio transcript was true, and the audio was not played. The statement that the memory protocol was “fictitious” was not made out of bad intent, but out of the “deepest conviction” that after such a long time I could not remember a conversation in such detail, according to Fellner. He could only apologize to Wagner, but he maintained that the dinner was “roughly out of context” and that the statements were neither defamatory nor represent sexual advances. He also held against Wagner for having made the recording “illegally”.
The judge proposed a settlement, which Rami rejected and advocated the imposition of a severe sentence. In the course of time, Wagner had been “badly slandered” in the daily newspaper “Österreich”, and it was also an archetypal example of harassment.
The judge sentenced Fellner to a fine of 120,000 euros, a quarter of which was unconditional. The penalty framework under Section 111 Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code provides for a prison sentence of up to one year or a fine of up to 720 daily rates. As a mitigating factor, the judge cited that the media maker was an innocent citizen and confessed. The judgment is not final because Fellner’s lawyer, Georg Zanger, did not make a statement. He has three days to do this.
Source From: Nachrichten
