Buwog Affair: Supreme Court Hearing on Grasser's Legal Remedy in March

Grasser, Meischberger, and Hochegger filed nullity complaints and appeals against the prison sentences imposed in 2020 with the Supreme Court (OGH). According to a statement from the OGH on Thursday, the hearings are scheduled for March 20, 21, 24, and 25, 2025.

Prison Sentences in Buwog Affair Against Grasser, Maischberger, and Hochegger

The former Finance Minister was sentenced to eight years in prison by Judge Marion Hohenecker at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court on December 4, 2020, Maischberger received seven years, and Hochegger six years. The 168-day-long hearings were preceded by seven years of investigative work before the main trial began on December 12, 2017. The Buwog case involved the privatization of federal housing companies during Grasser's term in office. One of these companies was Buwog. Grasser was convicted of breach of trust, evidence falsification, and illegal acceptance of gifts, Meischberger for aiding and evidence falsification.

Hochegger was not only charged with being an accessory to Grasser's offenses but also with bribing the former Finance Minister by the then Immofinanz CEO Karl Petrikovics and the former head of Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich (RLB OÖ). According to the non-final judgment, there were covert commission agreements amounting to 9.6 million euros in the Buwog case. And part of it is said to have ended up with Grasser. Additionally, 200,000 euros are said to have flowed during the leasing of the finance office in the Terminal Tower office building in Linz.

Grasser called the judgment a "blatant miscarriage of justice" as well as a "political judgment." Meischberger accused the judge of bias. The lawyers of Grasser and Meischberger have already announced at the time of the verdict in 2020 that they would go to the European Court of Justice due to the lengthy proceedings.

(APA/Red)

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