Austrian ex-vice chancellor acquitted in corruption trial

VIENNA (AP) — Former Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has been acquitted in a corruption trial, the second he has faced since a scandal surrounding him brought down the country’s government in 2019. Strache was accused of procuring a post on the supervisory board of Asfinag, a government-owned company that manages Austria’s highway system, for businessman Siegfried Stieglitz in exchange for donations to an organization close to the politician’s far-right Freedom Party. The Vienna state court acquitted both Strache and Stieglitz on Friday, citing insufficient evidence. Strache said he was “grateful and relieved.” Strache was the central figure in the fall in 2019 of an Austrian government made up of then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservative party and the Freedom Party.