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Acquittal for Linz’s Former Mayor Klaus Luger

Klaus Luger was acquitted of the charges of breach of trust.(Bild: FOTOKERSCHI / FLORIAN REISINGER)

The embezzlement trial against former Linz Mayor Klaus Luger concluded sooner than expected on Friday afternoon. This was because the two attorneys representing him exercised their right to withdraw from the case. In the end, Luger was acquitted—because, in substance, he had not commissioned the controversial expert report and because the former mayor’s misconduct was not the subject of the proceedings. The verdict is not yet final.

The trial had been adjourned on July 3 because the judge wanted to question two more witnesses: the expert who drafted the report that Luger had commissioned—and which ultimately proved to be his political undoing—as well as a second attorney who also presented the report to the LIVA supervisory board. However, both lawyers exercised their right not to testify due to professional confidentiality and did not appear.

They did, however, submit a document to LIVA that was read aloud in court. It stated that they had been commissioned to assess how Luger should have behaved after learning that there had been “whistleblower statements” regarding his conduct. Luger’s attorney argued that Luger was not required to disclose that he was the “leak”—and that the attorneys had no business examining his role at all.

Both Lost Their Jobs
As is well known, Luger is accused of commissioning the 19,000-euro expert opinion, even though he himself was the one who, in 2017, had passed on the hearing questions to the eventual winner, Dietmar Kerschbaum, during the selection process for LIVA’s artistic director. Luger refers to this as a “major mistake,” but argues that he commissioned the expert opinion to generally clarify the legal consequences of passing on questions—and not, as the prosecution alleged, to divert attention from himself.

In their written statement, the attorneys pointed out that they had to assume an “unknown person” had passed the questions on to Kerschbaum and that they would have acted and assessed the situation differently if they had known from the outset that Luger was the “leak.” Furthermore, they had been instructed only to examine whether Kerschbaum could be prosecuted.

Diversion Overturned
After the “shady dealings” came to light, Klaus Luger resigned from the office of mayor. Dietmar Kerschbaum also lost his job and subsequently failed in his lawsuit challenging his dismissal. Luger has since repaid the 19,000 euros and nearly avoided trial through a diversion agreement. However, the Linz Higher Regional Court overturned the decision of the Linz Regional Court, which had offered—and accepted—a diversion agreement involving the payment of a 20,000-euro fine.

The judge agreed with the defense’s arguments that Luger had not acted for his own benefit and had relied on the advice of an attorney who had insisted on obtaining an expert opinion. He himself had derived no personal benefit from it. Therefore, he had to be acquitted. This acquittal is not yet final, as the prosecutor has not yet approved it.