“Ibiza detective”: witnesses interviewed again – salzburg.ORF.at
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the private detective is said to have handed over 1.25 kilos of cocaine with a purity of at least 70 percent near the Lower Austrian city of Haag (Amstetten district), in Salzburg and Upper Austria at a gram price of 40 euros in 2017 and 2018. Hessenthaler is said to have paid off debts according to the indictment and / or improved his dreary financial situation. The accused denied this. The defense attorneys spoke of fabricated allegations.
The accused, who is in custody, is incriminated by two witnesses whose statements contradict one another in part. The man – a former business partner of the accused – and his former lovers were convicted of drug offenses in Salzburg last year. The Slovak woman, who had to be broken off on the previous trial days on September 8th and October 13th due to psychological problems, was interviewed again on Tuesday morning – again at her request in the absence of Hessenthaler.
Contradictory testimony from the witnesses
As in the previous interviews with the woman, there were also differences this time compared to the more than ten interrogations by the executive. “At the police station I was quite stressed,” said the Slovak woman, according to the interpreter’s translation. “Sometimes I can’t remember exactly. It was so long ago “, said the witness:” As soon as detailed questions are asked, I suddenly get confused. “Questions to the Slovak woman” produce even more contradictions, “summed up the judge at short notice. It was critically noted that. This was therefore not previously known to the court.
Salzburg place for drug delivery
The witness did not want to commit to the amount of drugs left in Salzburg. The Slovakian girl has definitely shown that the third time 500 grams of drugs had changed hands. The second time it was said to have been a total of 500 grams of cocaine – in two days, as she said for the first time. Confronted with this, the male main witness replied in his interrogation on Tuesday: “That is not correct.” The crowd had been handed over all at once.
Both main witnesses accused each other of having suffered delusions through drug use. The Slovak woman stated on Tuesday that her former lover had sold false information or passed it on to the police as a person of trust. “He wanted to earn something in every situation,” said the woman, according to the translation.
Forged documents
Hessenthaler IS also accused of possessing and handing over a fake Slovenian driver’s license and identity card in the name of a Romanian acquaintance and of having presented a fake Slovenian driving license at a police check on May 7, 2019 in Vienna. “I take responsibility for the fact that these documents are wrong,” the defendant admitted on the first day of the trial.
Wednesday will take part in the trial
The lay judges’ hearing will continue on Wednesday. Gert Schmidt, lobbyist and operator of the online platform eu-infothek.com, is again invited as a witness. He is said to have paid two former business partners of Hessenthaler, including the main witness, a total of 55,000 euros for information about the Ibiza video and the people behind it. The defendant has brought into play that the witness should have received money or benefits in kind for false allegations against him. That is denied by the person concerned.
Hessenthaler is said to have produced the video on which the then FPÖ boss and vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and FPÖ club chairman Johann Gudenus can be seen in a villa on Ibiza in conversation with a supposed oligarch niece. After the recordings were released in May 2019, not only were Strache and Gudenus lost their jobs, but the turquoise-blue coalition also broke. A new election was the result.