Status: 11/18/2021 3:54 p.m.
The affair of business with corona protective masks becomes a case for the Federal Court of Justice. The public prosecutor’s office announced a complaint against several decisions of the Munich Higher Regional Court. This does not see any corruption in the affair.
The higher regional court (OLG) Munich has exonerated the former member of the Bundestag Georg Nüßlein and the member of the state parliament Alfred Sauter of the central allegations in the CSU mask affair.
In its decisions, the OLG announced that their behavior does not meet the criteria of bribery or the corruptibility of mandate holders. The court thus upheld complaints from Nüßlein, Sauter and a co-accused entrepreneur on essential points.
Mask business investigation
Nüßlein and Sauter were involved in mask deals, and the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office started investigations against both of them. On February 3, Nüßlein was raided and he was arrested for 660,000 euros.
It happened at Sauter raided on March 11thIn addition, a day later, 1.243 million euros were arrested with him. The two politicians are said to have collected the money for their mediation in mask shops.
The court does not see the prerequisites for the offense being met
With their complaints, Nüßlein, Sauter and the co-accused entrepreneur defended themselves against the search warrants and property arrests. Three senates of the OLG have now largely upheld the complaints. The court overturned the arrest orders and also declared the raid on Sauter to be illegal.
The court justified the fact that there was no corruption by stating that the relevant allegation presupposed that an MP would receive or promise a benefit in return for an act in the performance of his mandate. This was not the case here.
Public prosecutor’s office announces a complaint to the BGH
The court declared that “according to the clear will of the legislature”, a mandate holder would not make himself liable to prosecution by accepting unjustified pecuniary advantages if – as in this case – he only uses the authority of his mandate or his contacts to make decisions by extra-parliamentary bodies such as To influence authorities and ministries.
This clear will of the legislature is the basis of the decisions on the successful complaints from Nüßlein and Sauter, it said.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office then emphasized that the legal issue had not yet been decided by the highest court. According to a preliminary assessment, the reasons given by the OLG are not convincing. For the final clarification, one therefore lodges a complaint with the BGH.