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D.former Austrian finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser was found guilty of infidelity relating to the privatization of federal apartments. Grasser had committed infidelity since late 2003, court president Marion Hohenecker said on Friday when the verdict was delivered in the grand jury room of the Vienna Criminal Court. According to the court’s statements, Grasser abused his political function, violated property interests and failed to fulfill his obligations.
Michaela Seiser
Commercial correspondent for Austria and Hungary based in Vienna.
The court found that Grasser had proven to have caused damage to the republic by violating the confidence around millions of payments in the privatization of the Buwog residential cooperative and the Linz Terminal Tower office building. Much of the accusation followed. Grasser was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Other defendants were also sentenced to lesser sentences. The judgments are not final. Grasser was finance minister in two national conservative governments under Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel (ÖVP) between 2000 and 2007, first as a minister of the FPÖ and then with an ÖVP ticket. He was also the political foster son of the late liberal politician Haider, but later distanced himself from him. In the course of the trial, Grasser dismissed all allegations that he always acted correctly and had only the interests of the Republic in mind.
The evidential trial against Grasser and 14 other defendants (one deceased) at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court lasted three years. This was followed by seven years of investigation. The former finance minister, now 51, was once regarded as the leading figure in the ÖVP-FPÖ government.
For the Austrian judiciary, which suffers from a lack of resources, the procedure was not only time-consuming but also problematic under the rule of law. Years of investigation prevented Grasser, who studied business administration, from pursuing his professional career. Lessons have been learned from these experiences. In principle, investigations can last three years from 2015. If prosecutors want to investigate longer, they must provide a good reason.
The process could move on to the next instance
The excessively long length of the proceedings is imperative to mitigate the sentence. The European Court of Human Rights has also ruled that disproportionately lengthy proceedings must be offset by lighter sentences. Aside from that, the process is very likely to move on to the next instance and then continue. Once the criminal proceedings in Austria have concluded, the accused could also go to the European Court of Human Rights. If they succeed there, it could lead to a full re-edition of the criminal case.
The procedural effort and great media interest have been exceptional in terms of legal history. However, Grasser is not the first Austrian politician to be in the dock. Hannes Androsch, finance minister of the “Sun King” Bruno Kreisky government, was convicted of tax evasion. Former Interior Minister Blecha was legally punished in 1993 with a nine-month suspended sentence for suppressing evidence and forging documents on the issue of illegal arms deliveries by gun manufacturer Noricum. Former Foreign Minister Leopold Gratz was also found guilty of false testimony in the criminal case involving the bulk carrier Lucona sunk in the Indian Ocean.
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