Rockers in court

3960 pages to go before verdict in drug trial

The 39-year-old is facing up to 15 years in prison.

(Bild: Dorn Chantall/Krone KREATIV)

The trial of an ex-motorcycle club president from Vorarlberg, who is alleged to have carried out drug deals on a grand scale, did not reach a verdict on Thursday at Feldkirch Regional Court - instead, all those involved will probably have to prepare themselves for an almost endless trial. 

One of the biggest drug trials in Austria in recent years was adjourned indefinitely after two and a half hours at Feldkirch Regional Court on Thursday. The reason for this was that the three lawyers of the 39-year-old defendant had objected to the summarized file being read out.

This means that it will take a few more trial days before the judge has read out the 3960-page case and - God willing - a verdict can be reached. "In this case, we will do a bit of reading in the next few hearings," announced the presiding judge of the panel of lay judges, Alexander Wehinger, and adjourned the eagerly awaited trial.

The defendant from the Bregenz area is facing 15 years in prison. As the alleged mastermind of an extensive drug ring, the previously innocent man is said to have smuggled cocaine and cannabis with a total value of around 2.5 million euros from Spain via Germany to Austria between 2020 and 2021.

The accused was represented by three lawyers on Thursday: Roland Kier and Andreas Schweitzer from Vienna and Olivia Lerch from Vorarlberg.

(Bild: Dorn Chantall)

Long list of offenses
Furthermore, the Feldkirch public prosecutor's office accuses the man of having arranged the distribution of 50 kilograms of cocaine and 63 kilograms of cannabis, and in one case of having done so himself. The father of the family is also suspected of offering four kilos of cocaine for sale.

He is also alleged to have violated the Weapons Act by possessing a telescopic baton and brass knuckles. During the trial on Thursday, the defendant was adamantly silent and instead allowed his star line-up of lawyers - Roland Kier, Andreas Schweitzer and Olivia Lerch - to speak. The defense lawyers did not hide their criticism of the proceedings: "The indictment is based exclusively on servers seized by French police authorities containing chat messages via crypto messenger services between the defendant and alleged suppliers and buyers," said Lerch.

After the court dismissed and rejected several requests from the defense, such as the handover of the raw data seized by the French police, as exploratory evidence, defense lawyer Schweitzer made it clear to the prosecutor: "There is a decree from the European Court of Justice that the raw data must be made available to the defendant for defense purposes in the interests of a fair trial so that he can take a stand."

Large security contingent
The drug trial against the ex-rocker boss took place under strict security precautions in the presence of a number of law enforcement officers. Several suspects in the drug ring arrested in January have already been sentenced to several years in prison.