Ex-Chancellor of Austria stripped of Parliamentary Immunity

The Austrian National Council, the parliament's lower house, stripped former chancellor and leader of the Austrian People's Party Sebastian Kurz of parliamentary immunity.

The responsible parliamentary committee on Tuesday gave the green light to the removal of Kurz's immunity; on Thursday, the lawmakers approved this decision.

Kurz himself previously welcomed the parliament's intention to remove parliamentary immunity from him in order to complete an investigation by the anti-corruption prosecutor's office against him on suspicion of complicity in bribery, Sputnik reported.

Kurz resigned as Austrian chancellor on October 9 amid an investigation by the anti-corruption prosecutor's office against him, but remained the head of the party and the leader of its parliamentary faction. The anti-corruption prosecutor's office later in October sent a request to the Austrian National Council with the aim of lifting Kurz's parliamentary immunity.

The politician said that he did not consider himself guilty and would prove his innocence, stressing that his innocence had already been confirmed by an independent legal examination.