The trial against a 28-year-old who organized corona demonstrations and had serious conflicts with the authorities because of corona measures began on Wednesday in the Linz Regional Court with increased security measures. He is accused of, among other things, provision for abuse of office, defamation, false testimony, dangerous threats. The defendant pleaded partially guilty.
“With his criticism of state measures, the accused far exceeded what is permissible in a democracy,” the prosecutor said. It all started in February 2021 after a demonstration against the Corona measures in Rohrbach. The accused provoked officers at a police inspection and later testified as a witness that he had been injured by a police officer and his shirt torn. This corresponds to slander and false testimony.
threatened by the police
From May to July 2021, the accused was repeatedly involved in serious conflicts with the police and authorities. Essentially, he threatened officials. According to the indictment, the 28-year-old asked the officials to stop their actions, which he considered illegal. He therefore threatened the employees of the district administration and also a judge of the regional administrative court to publish their personal data and sent them liability declarations, according to which they would be personally liable for their official actions.
To this end, he published videos and documents with the names of the officials on social networks, and in the videos he also asked others to do the same, to denounce officials, to publish their data and to send them private declarations of liability. The length of the crime period and “the vehemence of the attacks shows that the actions were well thought out and the accused aimed to take chances,” said the prosecutor.
“Fight was determined by anger”
The state of Upper Austria, as a private party, joined the proceedings with a request for an injunction to refrain from such actions in the future.
Defense attorney Werner Tomanek described the matter as “deppad” and expressed his astonishment that his client managed “to rouse the concentrated state power in Linz and the Urfahr area against him in three months”. In Vienna he had already received completely different threats than the accused had given the authorities, but “if we are so sensitive…”. The lawyer referred to the defendant’s intact environment and said: “He did it, he doesn’t want it again” in relation to the pre-trial detention.
The accused, who is currently under investigation under the Prohibition Act, pleaded partially guilty, he made a confession of fact. When asked by the judge whether that would have paid off, he said: “No, absolutely not, quite the opposite.” The judge clarified with the accused the functions and processes in the constitutional state. “The mistake was that I went into a fight driven by anger,” said the man. In one week he received 18 Rsa letters that he was desperate and felt threatened. He took the sample form for the personal declaration of liability from an acquaintance. Several witnesses were still invited, and a verdict was planned for noon.
Source: Nachrichten
