In the trial over the accusation of favoritism, Schellenbacher could not be proven to have any intention in the ex-Wirecard manager’s escape. The judgment is not final.
A trial over alleged escape aid for former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek ended on Friday at the Wiener Neustadt regional court with a non-legal acquittal for former FPÖ National Council member Thomas Schellenbacher. The 61-year-old was accused of favoritism. He is said to have helped Marsalek to fly from Bad Vöslau (Baden district) to Belarus. However, the defendant was not proven to have any intention.
The public prosecutor spoke of a “swift operation” whose aim was to “get Marsalek out of the danger zone as quickly and unnoticed as possible” – namely from the Schengen area to Belarus, where no EU arrest warrant applies. This was “perfectly successful, so one can speak of a successful operation”.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, Schellenbacher is said to have arranged the flight to Minsk on behalf of Martin Weiss, a former department head in the now dissolved Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT). The former official is wanted with an international arrest warrant; he is said to have gone into hiding in Dubai. The departure is said to have been coordinated on June 18, 2020 at a dinner between Weiss and Marsalek in Munich. With a private charter plane and payment to the pilots in cash, the approach was “as conspiratorial as possible,” said the prosecutor.
The defendant pleaded not guilty in the single judge hearing. According to him, Schellenbacher only found out that the passenger was Marsalek on the morning of June 19, 2020. He didn’t know why the former manager wanted to leave: “I thought it was a business flight.” The 61-year-old, who was a member of the National Council from 2013 to 2017, emphasized that he had neither a personal nor a business relationship with Marsalek. He knew about “discrepancies” at Wirecard, but no details.
Marsalek had to be on the plane by 8 p.m. on June 19, 2020, otherwise it would no longer have been possible to take off from Bad Vöslau, it was said. It was very tight because the former Wirecard manager was late. The day before, he had been released from his position on the board of the payment service provider. At Schellenbacher’s request, Weiss told him that “everything was still safe” but that Marsalek “had to leave today,” it was quoted from earlier interviews. The former manager traveled with his real passport and is now believed to be working for the Russian domestic secret service FSB.
For passport and customs control, a pilot showed the police a screenshot of Marsalek’s travel document when it was not yet there. According to the witness, the officers’ response was: “Pass and you can fly.” The second pilot said the flight price was “just under 8,000 euros”. Marsalek paid exactly the amount mentioned and didn’t give any tips. It was only afterwards that we realized “that this had a different impact”. The police officer who was called as a witness and who drove to the airport and carried out the check could no longer remember it. He stated that he had not personally checked on Marsalek.
The defense did not consider the facts of favoritism to be met. “An escape may be true from Marsalek’s point of view,” but not from that of his client on June 19, 2020, said lawyer Farid Rifaat, who represents the 61-year-old together with Reinhard Berger and Marc Gollowitsch. According to his defense attorney, Schellenbacher had “no close relationship” with the former Wirecard manager. In the closing argument he requested an acquittal.
According to the single judge, Schellenbacher had no intention and “no evidence of interest in Marsalek’s escape”. In addition, the preliminary question of whether Marsalek had committed a crime “could not be conclusively assessed” – “even if there was strong suspicion,” she justified the verdict. The acquittal is not final because the public prosecutor filed an appeal on grounds of invalidity and guilt. (APA)
