Former Austrian chancellor to go on trial over alleged false statements to parliamentary inquiry

VIENNA (AP) — Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is set to go on trial Wednesday on a charge of having allegedly made false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government.

The charges center on his testimony to the inquiry that focused on the coalition he led from 2017, when his conservative People’s Party formed a government with the far-right Freedom Party, until its collapse in 2019.

Kurz pulled the plug on that government after a video surfaced that showed the vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader at the time, Heinz-Christian Strache, appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor.

Kurz is accused of giving false evidence in June 2020 regarding his role in setting up and appointing the leadership of a holding company, OeBAG, that administers the state’s role in some companies. The charge of giving false evidence carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

Kurz has denied any wrongdoing.

A few months after his first government collapsed, Kurz returned to power in a new coalition with the environmentalist Greens in early 2020. But he resigned as chancellor in October 2021. The Greens had demanded his replacement after prosecutors announced that he was a target of a second investigation into suspected bribery and breach of trust.

Kurz also denied any wrongdoing in that case.

The first hearings in his trial, which is expected to last at least several weeks, are scheduled for Wednesday, Friday and next Monday.