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Ex-Mayor Marcus Held (on Monday in front of the Mainz Regional Court)
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa
Marcus Held has been found to be corruptible and unfaithful in several cases: The Mainz Regional Court, chaired by Judge Wolfgang Eckert, sentenced the former mayor of the Rhineland-Palatinate town of Oppenheim to a prison sentence of one year and eight months on probation on Monday.
The public prosecutor's office had requested two years and three months' imprisonment, and the defense had requested an acquittal.
Held was charged with damaging the city treasury by 205,000 euros when paying brokerage fees that were not required.
In return, the 44-year-old is said to have arranged with the broker to make donations of 24,600 euros to the SPD Oppenheim.
Held had rejected the allegations and instead claimed that the city of Oppenheim had made a profit of 2.5 million euros on the purchase and resale of land to develop a building area.
According to Held, the purchase of the land would not have been possible without the involvement of the broker.
He also rejected the allegation of bribery at the time.
The proceedings against the broker initially co-accused, on the other hand, were discontinued in November against conditions.
Held was honorary mayor of Oppenheim am Rhein from 2004 to 2018.
He also sat for the SPD from 2013 to this year in the Bundestag.
The investigations against him began in 2017. Under the pressure of the allegations and repeated demonstrations in front of the town hall, Held resigned from all municipal offices in 2018, but retained his mandate in the Bundestag.
According to the indictment, the two former co-defendants should have declared themselves ready to pay ten percent of the brokerage fees paid by the city of Oppenheim to the SPD local association to finance the Bundestag election campaign of the SPD politician.
as / dpa / AFP
