Former Austrian leader Kurz charged with giving false evidence to a corruption inquiry
Prosecutors say Austria’s former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government, which collapsed in a scandal in 2019
BERLIN — Austria's former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government, which collapsed in a scandal in 2019, prosecutors said Friday.
An indictment against Kurz, his former chief of staff, Bernhard Bonelli, and a third person was filed at the state court in Vienna, the prosecutors' office that investigates corruption cases said in a statement. The court said Kurz will go on trial on Oct. 18.
The charges result from an investigation that was launched in 2021, when Kurz was still chancellor. It centers on his testimony to a parliamentary probe that focused on alleged corruption in the coalition he led from 2017, when his conservative People’s Party formed a government with the far-right Freedom Party, until its collapse in 2019.
Kurz pulled the plug on that government after a video surfaced showing the vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader at the time, Heinz-Christian Strache, appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor.
In the corruption case, Kurz is accused of giving false evidence in June 2020 regarding his role in the setting up of a holding company, OeBAG, which administers the state's role in some companies, and the appointment of its leadership. The charge of giving false evidence can carry a penalty of up to three years in prison.
Kurz has denied wrongdoing, a stance he reiterated in a series of posts on social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, earlier Friday that anticipated
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