Eine aktuelle parlamentarische Anfrage zum Madoffskandal in Österreich, in der "Der Fall Kampusch" erwähnt wird.
http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/J/J_15942/imfname_323135.pdf (Archiv-Version vom 20.10.2013)S 75/76 aus dem neuen Buch von Michael Leidig
Er schildert die Situation wie die SPÖ in den 80ern in vielen Skandalen verwickelt war und um in Zukunft solche Situationen zu vermeiden wurde eine neue Strategie ausgehegt.
Im unteren Teil wird dann genau das beschrieben was wir heute kritisiert haben: Der Staatsanwalt darf seit der Reform bestimmen welche Zeugen von der Polizei befragt werden und wer sie befragt (STA oder Polizei).
The changes in the criminal procedure law that allow such abuses to happen actually
only took place recently, but had its roots in the 1980s when a number of politicians
ended up with criminal convictions, and most of these politicians were from the SPÖ.
In working out how to avoid this happening again, it was clear there were advantages
to being able to influence the criminal procedure, and that could best be done by
influencing the gathering of evidence. Once the evidence is already there it’s harder to
control the direction things go, but if the evidence was never there in the first place, it
is far easier to keep a lid on things.
Evidence that this is exactly what happened can be found in a document presented
to Austria’s Parliament that detailed a meeting at the offices of the Viennese law firm
owned by Gabriel Lansky in 1997. Lansky is a partner in the law firm Lansky,
Ganzger & Partner that is deeply tied to the SPÖ, and among those present at the
unorthodox meeting were Senior Prosecutor Maria-Luise Nittel, the right-hand of
Werner Pleischl, the Senior Prosecutor.
Of the four Senior Prosecutor’s in Austria, (Vienna, Innsbruck, Graz and Linz)
arguably the most senior is the Vienna boss Pleischl, a close friend of the Innsbruck
boss Kurt Spitzer and the Graz leader Thomas Mühlbacher, who are together in the
SPÖ-linked BSA.
The document shows quite clearly that it was the intention of those at the meeting to
get more SPÖ influence within the Austrian justice system. The agenda talks
specifically about how to get more ‘comrades’ into the legal business. The
significance of this on the justice system cannot be underestimated, especially now
that the Justice Ministry (controlling courts and prosecutors) and the Interior Ministry
(controlling police) are both in ÖVP hands. Yet despite that the prosecution is
populated with people linked to the SPÖ that do not change regardless of who are
their political masters. Political party affiliation is not grounds for dismissal. So
because they are not politicians, but only under the influence of politicians, they stay
in office for years on end. Their influence also remains for years, regardless of
election results.
And crucially, while police sympathies have in the past lain with the ÖVP or the
FPÖ, the fact is that the police and with that the interior ministry have lost their
independence in investigating crimes. That control vanished with the ‘reforms’ of
January 1, 2008, that passed the power over to the SPÖ dominated STA.
Lansky, Ganzger & Partner are regarded as one of the top legal teams in the
country, and are well-connected with the country’s SPÖ political elite. The firm also
has extensive media contacts - especially in their role acting as the legal firm for the
news magazine group that includes the respected sister publications format and profil.
Pleischl, the Chief Prosecutor, is close to Lansky and, like him, lies very much with
the SPÖ. Both Lansky and Pleischl, according to insiders, are members of the BSA.
And Pleischl was the man that chose Radasztics as the Madoff prosecutor. It was also
Pleischl who was accused of burying and concreting over evidence in the Natascha
Kampusch case when it was discovered that the mistakes police had made could have
seen her freed years earlier. Mistakes that had been made in the time of the SPÖ
Interior Minister Karl Schlögl. But the relationship between the two goes much
deeper than that. The pair regularly play tennis together, and Schlögl is also now the
mayor of the community of Purkersdorf on the outskirts of Vienna where not only
does Pleischl live, but where his wife is the deputy mayor.
It was Pleischl that authorised the closure of the first investigation by the Vienna
public prosecutor on November 15, 2006, three months after Natascha’s escape -
saying that this was justified by the death of the man accused, Wolfgang Priklopil,
and “deficient evidence” to look for anybody else.
With a grip on the prosecution, it meant that the investigative competences that were
previously the responsibility of the court were moved over to be the responsibility of
the prosecutor. Most important of those was the role of the investigative judge that in
certain cases watched over and steered an investigation. With that job now done by
the prosecutors they not only governed the gathering of evidence, but the evaluation
of that material once it was collected as well.
That was the plan, and from the reforms of January 1, 2008, that is exactly what
happened. The investigative judge was abandoned and the first investigation is now
carried out by the prosecutor. But more than that, the prosecutor also has more power
than the investigative judge, for example in doing the interviews themselves with
suspects or witnesses. Interviews that were once done by police detectives. Before the
2008 changes that was not an option. If prosecutors decide to waive that right police
will still do it, but the prosecutor can still choose who the police are allowed to
interview: In short, detectives can only do interviews with people the prosecution
permits. The political system in Austria made it possible for the SPÖ to infest the
prosecution system with its members, it then allowed prosecutors to control and steer
every detail, and then made it the law to force prosecutors to report back to their
political masters to make doubly sure they were towing the line.