Disgraced Austrian MEP Strasser charged with corruption

(VIENNA) - Former Austrian interior minister Ernst Strasser has been charged with corruption in an EU lobbying scandal that forced him to step down as European deputy, special prosecutors in Vienna said Thursday.

Strasser, an MEP for the conservative People's Party (OeVP), one of the country's ruling parties, resigned in March 2011 after Britain's Sunday Times revealed he had accepted offers of 100,000 euros ($123,000) per year in exchange for proposing amendments in the European Parliament.

After a 15-month investigation, Strasser has now been charged with corruption and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors in Vienna said.

Strasser continues to maintain his innocence.

The investigation, which was conducted in five states, included searches at the European Parliament in collaboration with the EU agency Eurojust, the prosecutors said.

They added that they were also able to access bank accounts, and conducted dozens of interrogations as well as further house searches during which large quantities of files and computer data were seized.

Two reporters from the Sunday Times posing as lobbyists revealed the bribery allegations in March last year against Strasser and two other MEPs.