By Francois Murphy
Austrian prosecutors have requested parliament to carry far-right chief Herbert Kickl’s immunity over an allegation that he dedicated perjury testifying to a parliamentary committee, the workplace of the decrease home’s speaker confirmed on Thursday.
Information journal Profil reported earlier on Thursday that the Central Prosecutors’ Workplace for Financial Crimes and Corruption (WKStA) had despatched the request to the workplace of speaker Walter Rosenkranz, who’s from Kickl’s Freedom Occasion.
Profil stated the request adopted a press release despatched to prosecutors by Andreas Hanger, who was then a lawmaker from Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative Individuals’s Occasion, alleging Kickl had lied a couple of vary of points together with ads in print media paid for by the Freedom Occasion (FPO).
“I can verify that the request has been acquired by parliament,” a spokesman for Rosenkranz stated, declining to remark additional.
A spokesperson for the FPO referred Reuters to a report by information company APA quoting a press release by the parliamentary celebration as saying Kickl had spoken the reality in his testimony in April.
The WKStA can’t open an investigation except Kickl’s parliamentary immunity as a lawmaker is lifted. A spokesperson for the WKStA stated that it was not investigating Kickl.
The FPO got here first in September’s parliamentary election with round 29% of the vote and now has probably the most seats in parliament. Since a celebration wants to manage a majority of seats to control and no different celebration was keen to control with it, three different events at the moment are in coalition talks.
Speaker Rosenkranz should now submit the request to the decrease home’s immunity committee, which is able to then draw up a report earlier than the chamber decides whether or not Kickl’s immunity needs to be lifted, Profil stated.
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by International South World.
