The former vice-chancellor of Austria, Heinz-Christian Strache, has to justify himself for photos from his time as FPÖ party leader. The photographs, which are available to the SPIEGEL and the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ), show pockets of cash of dubious origin, which are apparently in Strache's company car.
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They were taken by a bodyguard of the ex-FPÖ chief and are also part of the investigation files of the Special Commission on the Ibiza affair. This was launched after SPIEGEL and SZ had released a video in May in which Strache of a supposed Russian investor in public contracts.
Experts have evaluated the images of the money bags on behalf of SPIEGEL and SZ. The exam had "no evidence of possible manipulation" provided, writes the photo-forensic scientist Wilfried Kohlhof. The images are from the years 2013 and 2014 and each show several bundles of 100 and 50 Euro notes. According to positional data, they were recorded in Vienna and at the Wörthersee.
In one case, the money was in a bag identical to a model that Strache wore on other occasions. There was "no reasonable doubt that this could be the same bag," said the photo-forensic Kohlhof. In another photo, the cash is apparently in a backpack.
In fax is from "sports bags with high sums of cash" the speech
A lawyer from Strache's former bodyguard assured upon request "that both the backpack and the sports bag were put into the car by Mr. Strache". Strache denies that. The Vienna Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office had already reached an anonymous fax in September, stating that Strache had "regularly received cash for sports bags with large sums of money". Behind it were "forces from the Eastern European countries".
The money could, so a guess, in connection with a possible mandate purchase. According to this, Ukrainian oligarchs with business interests in Austria are said to have proclaimed ten million euros in order to give FPÖ man Thomas Schellenbacher a mandate in the Austrian parliament. At present, a lawsuit is pending in Vienna.
In 2013, Strache had presented the hitherto politically unknown entrepreneur Schellenbacher as a surprise candidate on the Vienna state list a day after one of the photographs was taken with the bundles of money.
On Friday, the FPÖ threw Strache from the party. It followed with the exclusion of a unanimous recommendation of a party court. "For us it is a liberation," said the current FPÖ boss Norbert Hofer, "because it is history for us and Ibiza so we can look into the future." Strache is associated with a newly formed party.
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