Austrian court hears ex-chancellor Kurz's appeal against conviction

VIENNA: An Austrian court on Monday began hearing the appeal of former chancellor Sebastian Kurz against his conviction for giving false testimony.

Once hailed as the "wunderkind" of Europe's conservatives, Kurz resigned as chancellor in 2021 amid a series of accusations.

He was found guilty last year of giving false testimony to a parliamentary inquiry and handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence.

But Kurz, 38, appealed against the verdict, insisting that he was innocent. He argued that he was interrupted during his testimony and that the judge who convicted him was biased.

"I answered all questions in the inquiry to the best of my knowledge and conscience," Kurz said in a statement before Monday's court hearing.

The court is expected to rule on the appeal later on Monday.

Kurz was sentenced last year for having misled a parliamentary inquiry probing wide-ranging corruption scandals that brought down his first coalition government with the far right in 2019.

The appeal "argues that the court inadequately considered key evidence", amongst other grounds, according to a statement by Kurz's lawyer Otto Dietrich.

In a separate case, Kurz is still under investigation for corruption.

Prosecutors suspect that Kurz embezzled public money to fund polls skewed to boost his image, and to pay for favourable media coverage.

Since he quit politics in 2021, Kurz has been involved with numerous private international enterprises.

Those include the Dream cybersecurity company he co-founded in 2023 with the former head of Israel's NSO Group, which developed the controversial Pegasus spyware, and another entrepreneur.

Earlier this year, Dream said it was worth $1.1 billion.