Judge questioning after the Ibiza affair - Kurz reacted angrily: "I'm not a complete idiot"

Sebastian Kurz was questioned by a judge.

The background is the Ibiza affair and allegations against Austria's chancellor.

He probably reacted irritably.

Vienna - Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was questioned by a judge about post deals. The ÖVP politician is said to have reacted irritably to questions like a protocol should show. Accordingly, he sees himself as a victim of the public prosecutor's office. The research association

Spiegel

and

Standard was

able to view the minutes of Kurz's interrogation. As the

Spiegel

(article behind the payment barrier) reports, Kurz is said to have repeatedly shown irritation towards the judge and attacked the chief public prosecutor directly.

The interrogation at the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters had already taken place on September 3rd.

The Chancellery had only granted the questioning on Wednesday.

Kurz is accused of having knowingly told the untruth before the parliamentary committee of inquiry in the wake of the Ibiza affair.

Sebastian Kurz under pressure: Austria's Chancellor questioned before a judge

Domestically, the ÖVP politician is under pressure.

It is unclear how far the judiciary's investigation into him will go.

As

Der Spiegel

further reports, it is no longer ruled out in Vienna that the Chancellor could end up in the dock.

The questioning before the judge dealt with one aspect.

It was about the accusation that Kurz had largely carried out the promotion of his long-term confidante Thomas Schmid to the sole head of the state holding Öbag (more than 26 billion euros) himself - and later denied this.

Kurz denies this, however.

However, since the specialized business and corruption prosecutor's office is investigating him, he was questioned before a judge.

Sebastian Kurz asked by Richter: SMS processes are being discussed

According to

Spiegel, this took

more than five hours. The minutes of the survey should be 151 pages long. Senior Public Prosecutor Gregor Adamovic from the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office was also present. From the very authority that Kurz implied in a background discussion with journalists that they represented a network of “red” lawyers. Austria's Chancellor wants to portray himself as a victim of political justice, as

Spiegel

writes.

Kurz is said to have initially explained to the judge in detail that he had no factual decision-making power in the Öbag supervisory board with regard to personnel decisions.

However, he was then confronted with SMS and chat histories.

According to

Spiegel,

however,

these seem to

be about such agreements.

Accordingly, Kurz wrote to Schmid: "You get everything you want anyway" - followed by three kiss emojis.

According to Kurz, this was not a promise, but rather disrespectful.

Personnel decisions at Öbag: Austria's Chancellor Kurz interviewed by Richter

In addition, Kurz is said to have been annoyed, according to the protocol, that the public prosecutor's office said: "... if he has not formally decided, then he has actually decided." After all, there are also SMS with suggestions from him, which were then not implemented. Kurz is said to have asked “What kind of a Würschtel would I be as Federal Chancellor”, if he had absolutely wanted someone who would not have become one. He left the decisions to others.

Kurz is said to have repeatedly explained how the wording of various SMS messages dealing with items should actually be understood.

According to

Spiegel, he was

even upset that some chat messages that were supposed to contain incriminating things were highlighted in yellow.

The Chancellor saw this as an alleged prejudice on the part of the public prosecutor's office.

But as it turned out, the markings came from the judge.

Chancellor Kurz questioned by Richter - ÖVP boss reacted irritably: "I'm not a complete idiot"

In the minutes his increasing irritation should show from Kurz.

To the allegation that he was not prepared for legal harassment despite the existing chat history from the cell phones of accused party friends, he is said to have responded with the following words: "I don't know how you assess me, but I'm not a complete idiot." "If I know that you all have these SMS, then it would be almost absurd to say something different." He is said to have answered further questions to the judge: "But you are not serious, is it?"

Briefly about the interview: "Was able to explain my point of view" (video)

(Scholz or Laschet? You can get the latest forecasts and first results in our politics newsletter.)

Chancellor questioned by Richter shortly after the Ibiza affair - "It annoys me tremendously"

Kurz is said to have repeatedly turned in the direction of the prosecutor in the interrogation. The judge forbade himself to do this with the words "Please limit your use of language a little", whereupon Kurz is said to have given in. After the questioning by the judge, Chief Public Prosecutor Adamovic also directed questions to the chairman of the ÖVP. According to

Spiegel

, the interrogation briefly broke off

with the remark "It doesn't work so well between us".

Kurz pleaded “not guilty” on his own behalf. Towards the end of the questioning, he became

impatient

, as the

reports available

to the

Spiegel

and the

Standard

are supposed to show.

He described the suspicion of false statements as absurd.

He evidently felt that he was being treated unfairly.

In front of the judge he said, according to the report: "... it just annoys me tremendously and I can't get out of my skin that I have the feeling that bits of text from text messages that can be interpreted against me are used and things become that actually have to glow red and that show what it really was like, simply ignored. "

(came)