Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s former chancellor, was acquitted on Monday of charges that he gave false testimony to a parliamentary inquiry—marking a legal victory for the 38-year-old conservative whose political career was derailed by scandal.
A court in Vienna overturned an earlier ruling that had handed Kurz an eight-month suspended sentence. Judge Werner Röggla said the case failed to meet “the objective elements of false testimony,” concluding that Kurz’s incomplete response to a 2020 committee question was not intentionally misleading.
The case revolved around how involved Kurz was in placing a political ally on a state-owned company’s control board. While the court acknowledged he had not given a full answer, it ruled he had been interrupted and could have elaborated if allowed.
Kurz, who led Austria’s government from 2017 to 2021, described the prosecution as politically motivated. He resigned amid a separate investigation into doctored opinion polls—an inquiry that remains open.
The court upheld the conviction of Kurz’s former chief of staff for lying to the same inquiry.
Though speculation about a political comeback persists, Kurz has so far stayed in the private sector, distancing himself from the Austrian People’s Party leadership.
