Austria’s former Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has filed a criminal complaint against three people who he believes could be involved in the leaked video footage that forced him to resign last week.
In a video on Facebook published Friday morning, Strache announced he had filed the compliant with the public prosecutor’s office in Vienna against “thee persons identified as possible accomplices.” A spokesperson of the office confirmed to POLITICO that it had received the complaint.
The secretly recorded video caused a scandal that last weekend brought down the Austrian coalition government between Strache’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s center-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP).
The footage, which was filmed on the Spanish island of Ibiza ahead of the 2017 Austrian general election, shows Strache trying to trade lucrative public contracts for campaign support from a woman who Strache believed to be a wealthy Russian. It remains unclear who set up the sting or who leaked the video.
In his Facebook post, Strache did not mention any more details on the three alleged suspects nor did he explain who had “identified” them as such nor on which basis. However, Strache said he believed that aside from these three people, the “participation of other persons is likely.”
Austria’s Der Standard reported that Strache’s three suspects are a Vienna-based lawyer, an Austrian private investigator and a woman also seen in the video.
The newspaper also reported that according to Strache’s lawyer, the potential criminal offenses include “misuse of sound and listening devices,” “suspected data processing for the purpose of profit and damage,” “forgery of documents” and “deception.”
“It is now up to the investigating authorities to clarify everything else,” Strache said in his video message, adding he was interested in “full disclosure.”
Strache, who also resigned as FPÖ leader last weekend, admitted that his actions in the video were “stupid,” but claimed he had been caught in a “trap” and only talked about “imagined scenarios” in the footage.
“Whoever only wanted to harm me could have published the video two years ago,” Strache said, adding he now wanted to investigate “who could have had an interest in embarrassing me and therefore lead the government of this country into its current, disastrous situation.”
The FPÖ’s ministers resigned in protest last week after Kurz requested that the far-right interior minister also step down in order to guarantee a transparent investigation.
They have been replaced by four caretaker ministers until Austria holds a snap election. Kurz, meanwhile, faces a confidence vote on Monday, the day after the end of the European Parliament election.
Strache’s actions and statements in the video were widely criticized both by allies and party rivals. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Strache, told Bild newspaper on Friday that Strache’s remarks were simply “not acceptable.”