The Viennese Regional Criminal Court has sentenced former lobbyist Peter Hochegger to two years and a half of imprisonment.

The verdict was handed late on Friday, according to reports of Sega daily.

The trial involved covert donations given by Telekom Austria to right-wing party Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZ?) during the general election campaign in 2006.

The court ruled that the party had received a total of EUR 960 000 through fake invoices through advertising and PR agencies.

The former PR and lobbying strategist for Telekom Austria was declared guilty of abetting embezzlement and making false statement in testimony to the parliamentary anti-corruption committee.

Up until the last day, Hochegger denied his involvement in the scheme for hidden sponsorship of the party, but the court ruled that he had acted deliberately.

Apart from Hochegger, whose prison term is longest, the court also issued guilty verdicts to a former MP, an advertising executive and the Spokesperson of then- Justice Minister.

All of the verdicts are not final.

The Alliance for the Future of Austria party was sentenced to pay a fine of EUR 960 000, or ? of its budget for the upcoming elections scheduled for September 29.

Hochegger made headlines in Bulgaria after it emerged that he had lobbied for Bulgaria's EU accession in exchange for a fee of EUR 1.5 M under two contracts from 2006 and 2008 signed during the term in office of the three-way coalition government headed by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.

The "Hochegger" affair came on the agenda of an ad-hoc committee of Bulgaria's 41st National Assembly.

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