Former Justice Minister Wolfgang Brandstetter (ÖVP) assured the ÖVP inquiry committee on Thursday that he did not want to refuse. The accusation that he betrayed a search warrant was false, he said at the start of his interrogation. Brandstetter is accused of talking to suspended section chief Christian Pilnacek.
Brandstetter is being investigated on suspicion of breach of professional secrecy because he allegedly incited Pilnacek to reveal a search warrant. Following the allegations against him, the former justice minister also resigned as constitutional judge. Brandstetter said at first he was happy to have the chance to clarify the charges and testify. He could not incriminate himself in relation to his own trial because there was nothing to incriminate himself with, he said of his renunciation of the expropriation.
Brandstetter then denied eloquently informed entrepreneur Michael Tojner of an impending search. He said he had no knowledge of a specific date and that the information about it had already been in the media in advance. About 90 minutes before the house was searched, Brandstetter wrote to Tojner: “If they come today, keep calm. Appealing this search makes perfect sense.”
Post-occupation defended at the Supreme Court
In his opening statement, Brandstetter also defended the appointment of current OGH Vice-President Eva Marek as head of the public prosecutor’s office in Vienna in 2014, although the Personnel Committee did not put her first. According to Brandstetter there were no partisan reasons, Marek was the person with the best technical qualifications.
Appointment to constitutional judge likely to be critical
Brandstetter, whose name appeared in a turquoise-blue side letter of the coalition negotiations, also defended the process of his own appointment as a constitutional judge. There were no appointments, he claimed. However, he himself only found out after the formation of the government that the government wanted to nominate him for a position: Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) advised him to simultaneously apply for both vacant positions at the Supreme Court, the former justice minister described. Brandstetter himself now sees this critically and as an “error of judgment”. For a former Minister of Justice, a very long cooling-off phase would have been necessary.
Source: Krone
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