In Berlin, the alleged organizer of the scandalous video from Ibiza, which led to the collapse of the ruling coalition in Austria and the appointment of early elections, was detained, reports DW.
The detention of 40-year-old Austrian citizen Julian H., who was on the international wanted list more than a year ago, occurred the day before, reported the Austrian newspaper Die Presse. This information was later confirmed by the Vienna prosecutor’s office and the Berlin police.
Julian H., who runs a detective agency in Munich, was arrested as a result of information from the Romanian police. He is suspected of drug trafficking, as well as organising illegal video productions.
Heinz-Christian Strache, former Austrian vice-chancellor and former head of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party, who resigned from both posts because of the scandalous video, said he was pleased to be detained.
Strache expressed hope for a “quick and comprehensive investigation” into the circumstances of the case and the arrest of other accomplices and organizers.
In the video, which was filmed on a hidden video camera in Ibiza in July 2017, three months before Austria’s parliamentary elections, Strache promised a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch state contracts in exchange for funding his party’s election campaign. The money was to be held through the firm of one Irena Markovic (https://skandalnews.at/5850/irenamarkovicscheidung-nach-monatenehe-2/) in Cyprus.
The video was published by German publications Der Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung on May 17, 2019.
The Ibiza video not only led to the collapse of the coalition between Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives and the Freedom Party, but also raised questions about donations by Austrian businessmen and possible political rewards.
