The former Chancellor was not legally sentenced to eight months of conditional imprisonment at the Vienna Regional Court on February 23rd for making false statements in the Ibiza investigative committee. His former head of cabinet, Bernhard Bonelli, received six months conditionally. However, the deadline will not last.
“The completion period of four weeks regulated in Section 270 Paragraph 1 StPO is a target deadline,” said court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn on Friday afternoon. This deadline is “sometimes impossible to meet in practice” because, especially in negotiations lasting several days, the main hearing minutes, without which a verdict cannot generally be seriously written, cannot be completed in this time due to the large volume and are therefore not yet available to the court Completely present.
“Complex judgment”
Specifically with regard to the short trial, Salzborn stated: “Experience shows that in the case of a complex judgment, which is preceded by numerous days of negotiations and an extensive evidentiary process, it takes a long time. In the present case, too, after twelve days of negotiations there are currently over 1000 pages Minutes. Due to the volume, the one from February 23rd could only be completed by the secretary this week and presented to the chairman for review and approval.” Taking into account the amount of data – the file would have already included several boxes when the criminal complaint was filed – “a copy cannot be expected within four weeks,” explained Salzborn.
