Haider police bribery inquiry dropped

Jorg Haider said allegations were made by "sick minds"

VIENNA, Austria -- Austrian prosecutors have dropped an inquiry into allegations that far-right politician Joerg Haider received confidential police files on his opponents.

The investigation was sparked by allegations made by a former policeman that officers had been bribed to hand over the information to Freedom Party members.

Haider strenuously denied the allegations, saying he was the victim of a political smear campaign by his opponents and describing himself as the most spied-on politician in Austria.

Haider's lawyer Huberta Gheneff said on Monday that preliminary investigations into alleged misbehaviour by Haider and a senior Freedom Party colleague, Ewald Stadler, had been dropped.

"Despite intensive months-long examination of all the allegations...by police and prosecutors, not a single piece of evidence could be found suggesting illegal behaviour by Dr Haider or Mr Stadler," she said.

Vienna prosecutor Friedrich Schindler confirmed that investigations against the two men had been dropped. Some of the allegations made against them had proved to be false and there was insufficient evidence concerning key facts, he said.

Haider told ORF radio on Monday that the evidence had been so thin that investigations should never have been started.

"I always knew that this was something that started in the sick minds of a few people and that it would collapse," he said.

Haider, who resigned as Freedom Party leader last year but still dominates the anti-immigration party, said he was confident that continuing investigations against the Freedom Party's leader in Vienna, Hilmar Kabas, would produce nothing.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The Freedom Party
Austrian Republic

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