Sebastian Kurz, a former chancellor of Austria, was acquitted Monday of charges that he lied to a parliamentary inquiry, clearing his name in a legal matter that has tarnished his reputation since before he resigned in 2021.
A court in Vienna overturned an earlier ruling that found he had lied about the extent to which he was involved with installing an ally to a government panel while he was chancellor. The ruling Monday overturned an eight-month suspended sentence handed down by a lower court last year.
“The objective elements of false testimony were not met,” said Judge Werner Röggla, who led the three-judge panel.
At issue was not Mr. Kurz’s meddling itself, but whether he had properly characterized the degree to which he was involved. In studying video of the exchange, which occurred in 2020, the judges found that Mr. Kurz had been truthful in his answers, if incomplete. Had he had been given more time to testify, the court said, he could have given a more complete answer.
The court found that Mr. Kurz’s chief of staff had lied during the same committee inquiry and upheld an earlier sentence for him.
The ruling is a vindication for Mr. Kurz, who since dropping out of politics in 2021 has been working in the business sector. He has long painted himself as a victim in the legal fight.
“You can probably imagine that it is difficult for me to understand why I am being prosecuted for not saying enough in response to a question, when I was even interrupted and unable to finish speaking,” a jubilant Mr. Kurz told reporters in Vienna on Monday.
Monday’s ruling did not clear Mr. Kurz of potential charges stemming from his involvement in coordinating the publication of doctored polls. A legal inquiry into that episode, which ultimately led him to resign in 2021, is still underway and could yet result in criminal charges.
Mr. Kurz, who became Austria’s youngest chancellor when he was sworn in December 2017 at 31, led two troubled governments.
His first, during which he was in coalition with Austria’s hard-right Freedom Party, fell apart after video emerged showing the leader of the that party apparently exchanging political favors with a woman he thought was niece of a Russian oligarch. A parliamentary inquiry launched to investigate wrongdoing in that episode led to the exchange for which Mr. Kurz was cleared on Monday.
A favorable documentary movie on Mr. Kurz in 2023 led to speculation that he was preparing himself for a political comeback. But Mr. Kurz, who is 38, has always denied those rumors, and when the party he led, the Austrian People’s party, was looking for new stewardship after a leader resigned suddenly last January, Mr. Kurz did not compete.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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