Brussels, 14/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 January, the former Austrian home secretary and MEP Ernst Strasser (EPP) received a four-year prison sentence from a court in Vienna. The Conservative, Ernst Strasser, was caught by British journalists agreeing to put forward amendments in favour of a lobbying group in exchange for up to €100,000 a year. The conversation was recorded. Several journalists from the British Sunday Times posed as lobbyists and contacted around 60 MEPs to propose that they introduce amendments to draft legislation in exchange for payments that ranged from €12,000 - €100,000. Three MEPs were charged on 20 March 2011 for having agreed to put forward these amendments: Ernst Strasser, Zoran Thaler, and former Romanian deputy prime minister Adrian Severin. (LC/transl.fl)