Politician Kurz: That there is a criminal master plan is "merely alleged"
Photo:
Helmut Fohringer / AFP
While Austrian politics is mainly concerned with the impending corona emergency, the top of the ÖVP has other concerns: namely, far-reaching investigations against their party chairman Sebastian Kurz.
He resigned as Chancellor in October after massive pressure from the coalition partner.
Since then it had become quiet for a moment.
But apart from the public, intense plans for a comeback are being forged.
For this it is necessary to quickly relieve Kurz in the public perception.
This should be achieved, among other things, through an opinion from the university professor and defense lawyer Peter Lewisch.
The ÖVP wanted to disseminate its findings in the media on Sunday, but the STANDARD already has its analysis of the investigation order from other sources.
On 17 pages, Lewisch tries to take apart the investigative work of the Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor's Office, or WKStA for short.
Lewisch accuses the investigators of "free-hand speculation" and even an "intolerable distortion of the facts."
His quite daring conclusion: there is "no concrete suspicion" against former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
»Socially adequate behavior«
How does Lewisch come to this conclusion?
First, he analyzes the accusation of the WKStA that the Ministry of Finance has committed infidelity with bogus invoices to pollster Sabine B., and has concluded a corrupt deal with the Fellner brothers in order to influence reporting in their media.
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The corruption investigators also see the offense of breach of trust in the fact that advertisements were placed in Austria that did not serve the public's need for information.
Lewisch says that the investigators could not judge this themselves - the ministry could best do it itself.
Even positive reporting is by no means an advantage for corruption, argues Lewisch: »If you take it seriously, the theater director, for example, would have to commit a corruption offense if he made a politically pleasing selection of plays in the expectation of increasing subsidies and being reappointed for a further term «.
In truth, it is a question of "socially adequate behavior".
"Facts that have been lived for years (...)"
But all of this has "nothing at all" to do with Kurz in any case, writes Lewisch.
The ÖVP chairman was "far - namely very far - away" from the suspicions regarding the advertisements.
And why did Kurz then receive information about what pollster Sabine B. would say in »Austria« and »Oe24.tv«?
According to Lewisch, "information about a (imminent) activity of a politically well-meaning opinion researcher in a print medium" relates to "an issue that has been lived across the political spectrum for years and is completely harmless under criminal law."
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The WKStA argues that the entire construct of the manipulated opinion polls, including the deal with "Austria", served to bring Kurz from the Foreign Ministry to the Chancellery.
Lewisch vehemently denies this: The fact that there is an overall criminal plan is "merely asserted", that remains "in the area of pure speculation".
The fact that Kurz had a "special self-interest" in the events because they brought him chancellorship is a "pseudo-justification".
And what about the chats in which Kurz is informed about new surveys or thanks for reporting in »Austria«?
Lewisch says that the WKStA operates a circular argument in its chat analysis: "The WKStA can therefore only read from the facts what it has previously read into it".
The chats are kept "completely neutral".
Sharp attack on WKStA
Even in the news in which the then General Secretary Thomas Schmid discussed with Kurz whether one could "persuade" Family Minister Sophie Karmasin, Lewisch saw nothing incriminating.
According to the WKStA, Karmasin is said to have established contact with the Fellners, but also with Sabine B.;
she is co-accused.
Your lawyer Norbert Wess said last week that these chats meant something completely different;
Specifically, it was about a political dispute within the grand coalition - which the then Vice Chancellor and ÖVP chairman Reinhold Mitterlehner rejected.
Lewisch also argues: »From this process alone it follows that the planned conversation between Sebastian Kurz and Dr.
Karmasin is solely in connection with the dispute with VK (Vice Chancellor, note) Mitterlehner. "
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Lewisch, professor at the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, also attacks the approach of the WKStA sharply.
They operate »storytelling« and have »no procedural competence« for the objective novel-like narration »of their suspicious assumptions«.
Sebastian Kurz is made "en passant" the accused, there is a "blatant prosecutorial bias", that is, one-sided investigation tendencies, at the WKStA.
The logo of the University of Vienna is emblazoned on each page of the analysis, which Lewisch carried out on behalf of Kurz's lawyer Werner Suppan.
Lewisch is also active as a »Senior Counsel« at the law firm Cerha Hempel, whose partner Edith Hlawati recently became chairman of the state holding company Öbag.
This article was taken from the Austrian news portal »DER STANDARD«.
