Grasser and Meischberger: Prisoned in prison - what now?

Grasser and Meischberger: Prisoned in prison - what now?

Vienna, Österreich - The Supreme Court (OGH) confirmed the judgments in the controversial Buwog process. Karl-Heinz Grasser, the former Austrian finance minister, was sentenced to four years in prison, while his confidant Walter Meischberger received a penalty of three and a half years. The two will soon receive a request for the criminal offense, as the penalties imposed exceed the three-year limit, which makes a conditional or partially impressive criminal prudence impossible. This means that you have to start your imprisonment within a month after delivery of the request, such as vienna.at reported.

The negotiation before the OGH, which started at 10:00 a.m., was led by five high strings. Grasser and his defenders appeal against the first instance judgment because they denounced the judge's bias. Grasser himself emphasized what wrongly he had happened to him and that he could not be guilty. Despite these arguments, the OGH rejected the essential points of the defense. Process errors or an unfair process could not be determined. A special aspect was that the husband of the judge Grasser-Critical tweets published; However, this was not considered an occasion for bias.

The process and the allegations

The indictment against Grasser, Meischberger and Peter Hochegger refers to the sale of the Federal Residential Construction Society (Buwog) and allegations of bribes. It is said that Grasser and his co -accused have requested money for information about the bidding process. The sale of the federal apartments was 961 million euros, of which 9.6 million euros flowed to Grasser and his allies. The investigation included 700 interrogations and 660 measures, including house searches and telephone surveillance, which led to a 1300 -page judgment, the written copy of which, as reported, took 14 months href = "https://www.sn.at/politik/inenpolitik/e-strafat-grasser-hoechst court- Years-175716889"> Sn.at .

In the course of the procedure, the OGH raised an indictment point regarding falsification of evidence and took into account the reasons for mitigation such as the long period of procedure. Despite this mitigation, the prison terms were rated as extremely difficult. Grasser said that after 16 years he hoped and plan to call the European Court of Human Rights. After the court day, the act is sent back to the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters.

consequences of the judgments

For Grasser and Meischberger, a return to the judiciary is inevitable because the punishments are mandatory. Principles that have been over 18 months must be served in a prison system. The prison initially begins in a judicial prisoner until the final judicial facility is determined. The Ministry of Justice has six weeks to carry out a classification procedure.

A conditional discharge can be requested after the punishment has been served. For Grasser, this means a period of two years, followed by a trial period of one to three years in which he is not allowed to commit new offenses. Due to its innocent life and his behavior, Grasser could theoretically receive a conditional discharge. Interestingly, under certain circumstances, an electronically monitored ankle capacity could only be taken into account, but only after half of the detention period, which is currently unlikely due to the length of its punishment.

Finally, the OGH made it clear that an ECHR complaint against the judgment has no punitive effect, which means that Grasser and Meischberger must quickly expect the consequences of their judgments. The topic of bribery and bribery in the public sector remains a hot iron in the political discussion, and the risk of being accused of such an act has far -reaching consequences for public trust in the political class, as well as in criminal right.univie.ac.at .