Commission Report: A new dispute over justice is inevitable

Since the beginning of the coalition, the judiciary has been the bone of contention between the ÖVP and the Greens. The focus is mainly on the investigations of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) against ÖVP politicians. On Monday, more fuel could be added to the fire. Martin Kreutner, head of the U-Commission, presents his final report. As a reminder:

When a secretly recorded audio of the late head of the Justice Department, Christian Pilnacek, surfaced last year, Justice Minister Zadic set up the commission.

What was on the tape? Pilnacek said in a drunken state that he had been accused by the chairman of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, of not having stopped the investigation into the ÖVP. He had always resisted such influence, says Pilnacek. Sobotka denied it. An initial suspicion of abuse of office against him was not pursued further due to lack of suspicion.

Political influence, appointments, etc.
The committee’s report focuses primarily on the question of whether there has been political influence on investigations. Committee head Kreutner also wants to investigate appointments to positions in the judiciary. The committee also looked into whether judicial representatives have cooperated with parties and the media and passed on internal information to them. Since the committee has examined documents from the past few years and also the data from Christian Pilancek’s private laptop, the result could be unpleasant for both the ÖVP and possibly the SPÖ. This means that heated political debates and arguments are inevitable.

Above all, there will be one Public Prosecutor’s Office on everyone’s lips again: the corruption hunters. The WKStA has had to endure a lot of criticism in recent months because house searches were declared inadmissible by the Higher Regional Court. They have also not yet been able to obtain a conviction against Heinz-Christian Strache.

Many key senior prosecutors leave the WKStA
But that’s not all: the elite prosecution has registered a number of high-profile departures. Gregor Adamovic and Christine Jilek, both of whom were the leading senior prosecutors in the investigation that resulted in Sebastian Kurz’s resignation, have already moved to their new positions. Now the group leader of the Ibiza complex is also being moved. Bernhard Weratschnig has put himself forward as a candidate for head of the Klagenfurt prosecution service. The Graz Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed this to the “Krone”.

Two men and one woman were in the final selection for the chief prosecutor of Carinthia. According to information from “Krone”, Weratschnig was put in first place by the personnel committee, just before public prosecutor Tina Frimmel-Hesse. “The committee has made its recommendation, now the ball is in the court of the Minister of Justice”, according to the media office of the Graz public prosecutor’s office. Because Alma Zadic can disrupt the order and Tina Frimmel-Hesse can order. The departure of Weratschnig would be a disaster for the WKStA.