Short trial: Schiefer is the first witness to testify

2023-11-14 05:40:00

The first to testify at the Vienna Criminal Court was former ÖBB CFO Arnold Schiefer. There is said to have been an agreement – or side letter – from the turquoise-blue government between him and the then Secretary General of Finance Thomas Schmid, which Kurz said he knew nothing about.

Specifically, Schiefer’s questioning is about whether Kurz knew about a personnel package for the state holding company ÖBAG that was negotiated between Schmid for the ÖVP and Schiefer for the FPÖ. A corresponding chat message from ex-Vice Chancellor Heinz Christian Strache (FPÖ) to the former Finance Minister Hartwig Löger (ÖVP) was presented to the U-Committee. When asked about this in the U-Committee, Kurz said he didn’t know “what they agreed to.”

The SPÖ had also reported the former ÖBB CFO for making false statements in the U-Committee. However, this procedure was discontinued by the Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA). Schiefer has been CFO at Deutsche Bahn since 2019. He only moved to the private sector in Upper Austria in the summer.

Schmid himself was actually scheduled for the first day of questioning witnesses by both the prosecution and the defense. However, he apologized and said that he was not in Austria that day and was therefore not “unavailable”. He will now be questioned at a later date.