Former Austrian vice chancellor convicted of corruption

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Former Austrian Vice Chancellor Convicted Of Corruption
Former Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache in a courtroom in Vienna
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By Associated Press Reporter

A court in Vienna has convicted former Austrian vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of corruption for trying to change laws to favour a private hospital in exchange for donations to his political party.

The former leader of the far-right Freedom Party received a 15-month suspended prison sentence for accepting two bribes totalling 12,000 euros (£10,277), according to Austrian public broadcaster ORF.

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Fellow defendant Walter Grubmueller, the owner of a private clinic in Vienna, was given a 12-month suspended sentence for bribery.


Heinz-Christian Strache
Mr Strache was handed a suspended prison sentence (Lisa Leutner/AP)

Both Strache, who served as vice chancellor from 2017 to 2019, and Grubmueller had pleaded not guilty to the charges and can appeal the verdict.

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Strache was the central figure in the fall of a previous Austrian government, a coalition of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservative Austrian People’s Party and the Freedom Party.

In May 2019, a video emerged showing Strache, the Freedom Party’s leader at the time, offering favours to a purported Russian investor.

The recording prompted Mr Kurz to pull the plug on the national government.

Strache, who denied any wrongdoing, was later kicked out of the Freedom Party.

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Mr Kurz returned to power last year in a new coalition with the Greens.

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