Judge convicts former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz

After twelve days of deliberation, a Vienna court has delivered its verdict on the trial of former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. 

He has been convicted of making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry. 

The verdict at the Vienna criminal court followed a four-month trial. 

The case marked the first time in more than 30 years that a former Austrian chancellor had stood trial. 

He was given an eight-month suspended sentence. 

Kurz, who was once hailed as a “wunderkind” of the Austrian People’s Party, resigned in 2021 following a separate corruption probe. 

Prosecutors in the trial, which opened in October, accused the 37-year-old of giving false evidence in June 2020 during an inquiry regarding his role in setting up a holding company named OeBAG. 

He is was also questioned over giving false claims in the same inquiry into appointing his former close confidant Thomas Schmid to a leadership position. 

According to the Associated Press, a private copy of the indictment involved incriminating text messages on Schmid’s phone. 

Schmid has testified extensively as the prosecution’s main witness on the case. 

Kurz denied the allegations and implied that the case had been influenced by politics. 

Sebastian Kurz rose to power at the age of 31 with an anti-immigration platform as the leader of the People’s Party. 

Becoming Chancellor in 2017, he called for an early election after the resignation of his vice chancellor who was caught on video allegedly promising government contracts to a prospective Russian investor. 

Kurz returned to power in a coalition with the Greens in early 2020 but resigned again in 2021 after he became the target of a second investigation into suspected bribery.