A trial against one of the backers of the so-called Ibiza video was dropped in Vienna on Thursday against payment of a fine.
The Leopoldstadt District Court offered a diversion to the lawyer Ramin Mirfakhrai, who was accused of misuse of sound recording or listening devices and a data protection violation.
Stephen Lowenstein
Political correspondent based in Vienna.
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Mirfakhrai was involved in the preparations when the then FPÖ politicians Heinz-Christian Strache and Johann Gudenus were led to believe that a Russian oligarch's niece wanted to support the FPÖ with her money.
The secretly made recordings from a finca in Ibiza, which led to Strache's resignation as FPÖ chairman and Austrian Vice-Chancellor because of scandalous statements, were later offered by the lawyer for millions of euros to potential interested parties, but they all waved them off.
A short compilation of the video was finally published in 2019 by the German media "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and "Der Spiegel", who stated that they had not paid for it.
After initial reports about his involvement, Mirfakhrai had it explained: "It was a project motivated by civil society, in which investigative journalistic paths were taken." In the process, the Ibiza lawyer stuck to this description.
He stated that the attempts to sell the recordings were only to "protect those involved".
According to a report by the Austria Press Agency, when the public prosecutor asked him several times, he admitted that injustice had been done.
He accepted the court's proposed fine of 15,000 euros and a 'voluntary' but part of the diversion reparation of 500 euros to Strache.
Mirfakhrai had initially introduced Gudenus to the fake oligarch's niece (of whom there is still no trace) using a fake passport copy.
The then FPÖ boss, who was the actual target, was reached through Strache's close confidant.