Court drama about climate activists: Is the defendant now threatened the punishment?

Court drama about climate activists: Is the defendant now threatened the punishment?

In a spectacular case of supposed abuse of office, a 63-year-old employee is criticized after he has imposed high fines against climate activists. The accused, whose procedure is headed by judge Claudia Bandion-Ortner, had offered the demonstrators to reduce their sentence from 500 euros each to 200 euros if they had to do without an appeal in writing. All three activists rejected this offer, which increased the tensions in the negotiation. Prosecutor Doris Wieser pointed out that the goal of the proceedings was a fair judgment for everyone involved, while the accused did not previously conduct correspondence about the negotiation, which he justified with a high workload. He is critical to him that the negotiation took place in a sometimes tense atmosphere after the activists rejected its offer.

The background of the procedure is a demonstration in which the activists sticked to a street. The prosecutor argues that the punishments that the accused imposed were illegal because they were an inadmissible procedure. The male demonstrator, who brought his punishment to the state administrative court, finally won the negotiation because the court found that the action was covered by the right to assemble and that the fine imposed is not durable. Bandion-Ortner made it clear that no remedy of appeal can be considered before the penalty of punishment, which strengthens the legal basis for the accusations raised against the accused.

abuse of official powers

The case raises a broad debate about the abuse of official powers. According to the provisions of the BGH, abuse in the sense of