Former Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, disgraced by a corruption scandal, was acquitted on Tuesday by a court in Vienna in a new trial due to a lack of evidence, AFP and Der Spiegel reported, Agerpres reported.

In August 2021, Strache, 53, was given a 15-month suspended sentence after being accused of changing the law to benefit the owner of a private hospital, but last August an appeals court overturned that decision, finding that some elements were a series of chat messages – which would have exonerated the former chancellor, were not taken into account.

In the new trial, a judge at the correctional court in Vienna found that prosecutors had not provided enough evidence to charge Strache.

At the heart of the file were donations received during 2016-2017 by Strache’s political formation, the Freedom Party (FPOe), from the owner of a private clinic. Strache, who was president of the party at the time of the donations, was accused of receiving two donations, worth 2,000 and 10,000 euros, from Walter Grubmüller, the owner of the clinic and Strache’s friend.

The donations were made before the FPOe entered government with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives in December 2017.

The scandal that led to Strache’s downfall

Following the installation of a government in which the FPOe received the health portfolio, legislation was amended to include Grubmüller’s clinic in the social security system, allowing it to significantly increase its sources of income.

As for him, Grabmüller, accused of bribery and sentenced to 12 months with a suspended sentence, was also acquitted on Tuesday.

Heinz-Christian Strache was vice-chancellor in the ruling coalition led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz from 2017 to 2019, when he compromised his political career after a hidden camera video in a guesthouse in Ibiza emerged in July 2017.

The footage shows him talking to a woman who claims to be the niece of a Russian oligarch. He promises her public contracts in exchange for financial assistance to his political formation before the parliamentary elections, which were to be held in a few months.

Corruption scandals for a while led to a decline in the popularity of the far right, traditionally strong in Austria, but currently the FPOe, although in opposition, has again become the country’s first political party, with more than 30% of parties. voting intentions.

Sebastian Kurz resigned as chancellor last October also due to corruption allegations against him.