"Purely a fill!"

Bang effect: town hall investigation without result

Overtime and contract awards in favor of the party and at the expense of the taxpayer have kept the public prosecutor's office in Klagenfurt town hall busy. With meagre results: the accusations against Christian Scheider's office manager Patrick Jonke could not be substantiated - the regional court closed the investigation.

Klagenfurt's Team Carinthia club chairman and mayor's office manager Patrick Jonke can breathe a sigh of relief: the investigations against him - including for breach of trust in connection with allegedly incorrectly invoiced overtime - have been dropped. The regional court in Klagenfurt has granted Jonke's request to discontinue the investigation, as confirmed by a spokesperson. Four out of five points are therefore off the table. Only one accusation concerning the commissioning of an advertising agency still needs to be investigated.

Jonke told "Krone": "This decision was always clear to me, because it was purely a matter of party-political accusations!" All of his actions have now been scrutinized many times over: By the Court of Audit, the police, the public prosecutors in Klagenfurt and also in Graz, and now even by the regional court. "That should show that I'm not guilty of anything," says Jonke.

However, it remains to be seen whether the dismissal will become legally binding - the public prosecutor's office could theoretically still have the decision of the Klagenfurt regional court reviewed by the Graz Higher Regional Court.