In hiding?

Investigation committee: Kickl confidant cannot be found

(Bild: Parlamentsdirektion/Michael Buchner)

The questioning in the committee of inquiry into the "red-blue abuse of power" ended on Thursday without an interviewee. The head of the agency, Thomas Sila, should actually have been brought before the police, but he was not available. Sila's lawyer criticized to the APA that his client should have been questioned despite a serious illness. The ÖVP spoke of alleged indications that Sila had been spotted near the Klagenfurt lido.

Sila had once founded the advertising agency Ideenschmiede together with Kickl and now runs the successor company Signs. The ÖVP suspects that Kickl benefited enormously financially from his involvement.

Too ill to testify?
However, Sila has provided parliament with a medical certificate confirming a serious chronic illness. Nevertheless, the SPÖ and NEOS also agreed to the agency head's presentation. The Greens also referred to his state of health.

Herbert Kickl has also already had to answer questions in front of the U Committee.

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

In his statement, Sila's lawyer Johann Pauer emphasized that Sila's presentation was unlawful. The Federal Administrative Court will probably come to the same conclusion. He referred to the legal opinions of the trial judges, who had already advised against a presentation in advance. "This is a political spectacle at the taxpayers' expense on matters that the public prosecutor's office has already meticulously investigated and finally closed," said Pauer.

FPÖ outraged, ÖVP sees Sila as a "mini-Benko"
FPÖ parliamentary group leader Christian Hafenecker also criticized the procedure, and not just in the Silas case. The ÖVP wanted to "drag" a "really sick person" before the U Committee. The last day of questioning in the U-Committee was a documentation of "how the ÖVP misused the most important parliamentary instrument for their election campaign smear campaigns". Hafenecker was repeatedly interrupted during his statement by interjections from Hanger.

The questioning in the committee of inquiry into the "red-blue abuse of power" ended on Thursday without a respondent.

(Bild: Parlamentsdirektion/Michael Buchner)

The ÖVP suspects that Kickl benefited enormously financially from his involvement and even sees the FPÖ leader as a kind of "mini-Benko". Hanger himself sees Sila's absence as a scandal. The ÖVP mandatary reported that he had "received" a call that the agency boss had been spotted "at the Klagenfurt lido" - when asked, he corrected this to say that he had been in the car on Villacher Straße, "Strandbad area". In an initial reaction, Sila's lawyer spoke of a lie, and legal steps were being examined.

Criticism of LPD Carinthia
Hanger also criticized the Carinthian State Police Directorate, which had not been able to locate Sila. He now wants a parliamentary question to clarify what the police did to produce Sila. Yannick Shetty from the NEOS also criticized the Carinthian police in this context.

The Carinthian police did not want to let the accusations stand. "All legally permissible measures were taken by the Carinthian police to locate them," it said in a statement from the Carinthian State Police Directorate. "All known addresses, such as company headquarters and residential addresses, were checked several times and alternately."

SPÖ MP Eva-Maria Holzleitner also regretted that Sila's interview could not take place. The Green Party member Meri Disoski criticized the fact that the FPÖ had prevented Kickl himself from being invited on the last day of questioning, as he was not a future "people's chancellor" but a "people's cashier".