Ibizagate source Julian Hessenthaler convicted by Austrian court
A still from the Ibizagate video, originally published by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung
In September last year, we reported on the start of the trial of Julian Hessenthaler in St Polten, Austria. Private detective and journalistic source Hessenthaler was a key figure in the exposure of the Ibizagate affair, in which a video depicted Austria's then Vice Chancellor Hans Christian Strache in a compromising discussion with someone he believed was the representative of a Russian oligarch.
The Ibizagate video was published in 2019 and brought to light high level corruption in an extremely visible and embarrassing way. The resulting furore triggered the collapse of Austria's far right coalition government. The Austrian authorities then pursued Julian Hessenthaler and had him extradited from Germany at the end of 2020. He has been in custody in Austria ever since.
Hessenthaler's trial has continued in fits and starts and finally concluded this week with Julian Hessenthaler being found guilty of drugs trafficking charges and sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment. In a statement at sentencing, the presiding judge stated that the prosecution was entirely unconnected to Ibizagate. Hessenthaler himself, in an interview given to Austrian TV after his conviction, strongly suggested that his prosecution was politically motivated.
Journalists and members of civil society who attended the hearings have questioned many aspects of the proceedings. German human rights lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck has criticised the German authorities for acceding to Hessenthaler's extradition without considering whether it was requested for political reasons.
Austrian digital rights NGO epicenter.Works and Amnesty International, who both attended every single hearing, have expressed concern about the conviction and its implications for freedom of expression in Austria. In a statement published after the ruling, Thomas Lohninger, Managing Director of epicenter.works said:
"During the trial, many doubts arose. The main witnesses in particular contradicted each other and themselves several times in their accounts and finally accused each other of lying. All in all, their questioning raised more questions than could be clarified. And there was no further evidence against the accused except for the statements of the two witnesses, to whom there were undisputed payments in the five-digit range from the Novomatic gambling group."
Annemarie Schlack, Executive Director of the Austrian branch of Amnesty International, said:
"The Ibiza video of Julian H. has brought to light facts concerning corruption and the rule of law in Austria. Revealing this information is covered by freedom of expression and thus protected by Art. 10 ECHR
"With all the trust in an independent judiciary, it must be quite permissible to ask questions. Namely why the prosecution was so excessive, why the doubts about the witnesses' statements were not given more consideration and why it is apparently so important to set an example here."
Austria falls even further behind in protecting whistleblowers
Austria is one of several EU member states now subject to European Commission infringement proceedings for failing to transpose Union-wide whistleblower protections by the December 2021 deadline. The absence of any current protections for whistleblowers in Austria makes a strong transposition here particularly important.
Unlike other countries in a similar position, Austria has yet to publish a draft law or start public discussions about a new whistleblowing law. At the end of December 2021, a report in Der Standaard suggested that an unpublished draft law did not adopt the horizontal approach - meaning protections applied to reports about breaches of national as well as European laws - that civil society and other experts unanimously recommend.
Julian Hessenthaler's lawyers have already started the process of appealing this week's ruling.