The so-called Ibiza detective has been on trial in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, since Wednesday, not because of the secretly recorded video that led to the end of the center-right coalition in 2019, but because of the allegation of cocaine trafficking.

According to the indictment, Julian H. is said to have sold more than a kilogram of cocaine to an acquaintance who has now testified against him.

He denied the allegations.

He faces up to 15 years imprisonment.

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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Like H. himself in earlier interviews, his defense now assumed that he should be silenced with constructed allegations.

It is only a matter of "punishing the accused for making the Ibiza video," said H.'s defense attorney, according to the Austria Press Agency.

The prosecution assured, however, that this trial is by no means about the video, "it is about completely different allegations".

Defense points to contradictions

A total of 1.25 kilos of cocaine were handed over in 2017 and 2018 near the Lower Austrian city of Haag, in Salzburg and Upper Austria.

The recipient was an acquaintance who was addicted to drugs and who had previously worked for a security company owned by H.

He in turn took the cocaine partly together with his girlfriend, and partly sold it. Both were convicted of drug offenses last year. The woman had made a "life confession" after 133 grams of cocaine were found, the prosecutor said. The man testified only after his main hearing about surrenders by the 40-year-old H. because his mother, who lives in Bosnia, was threatened two weeks before his trial and he was frightened.

The defense referred to contradictions in the testimony of the two witnesses, in particular the changed testimony of the man to whom H. is said to have sold the cocaine. She insinuated that the investigators were only interested in a burden on the man who, according to his own admission, set the video trap for the then FPÖ chairman Heinz-Christian Strache in 2017 in Ibiza.

The defense tried to portray the process as a political process: After its conclusion, it would be known whether it was possible in Austria for someone who exposes corruption to be taken out of circulation with false accusations. The defendant confessed on Wednesday to another document offense that he was accused of: he was responsible for forged documents, a Slovenian driver's license and an identity card. The defense asserts, however, that this is not a criminal offense in this case for legal reasons.