A Vienna court on Monday acquitted former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry, overturning a suspended prison sentence handed down last year.
The ruling by the upper state court marks a legal victory for Kurz, once a rising star in European conservative politics, who had been convicted in February 2024 of lying about his role in appointments to a state-owned holding company.
The case stemmed from Kurz’s testimony in June 2020 before a parliamentary committee investigating corruption allegations during his 2017-2019 coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). Prosecutors accused him of downplaying his involvement in the selection of executives for ÖBAG, a state holding company, including the appointment of his ally Thomas Schmid.
While Kurz was initially convicted of misleading lawmakers about his influence over the company’s supervisory board, the court on Monday found insufficient evidence to uphold the charge.
“What came out is what I have always said—that I did not tell untruths to the parliamentary inquiry,” Kurz told reporters outside the courtroom. He added that he looked forward to returning to his family after years of legal proceedings.
However, the court upheld the conviction of Kurz’s former chief of staff, Bernhard Bonelli, for false testimony regarding the ÖBAG appointments. Bonelli received a six-month suspended sentence last year.
Once the youngest leader in Austria’s history, Kurz became chancellor at 31 in 2017, leading the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) to victory on an anti-immigration platform. His first government collapsed in 2019 after a scandal involving the FPÖ, but he returned to power in 2020 in a coalition with the Greens.
His political career unraveled in 2021 when prosecutors opened a separate corruption investigation into allegations that he used state funds to manipulate polls and secure favorable media coverage. Kurz, who denies wrongdoing, resigned and later left politics.
Since then, speculation has persisted about a potential comeback. His ÖVP remains in government under Chancellor Karl Nehammer but lost its top position in elections last September to the FPÖ.
Kurz has since co-founded a cybersecurity firm, though his legal troubles are not fully behind him—he remains under investigation in the separate corruption case.
Monday’s acquittal, however, delivers a significant reprieve. “I have been confronted with accusations for years,” Kurz said. “Now, it has all collapsed.”