The government bill for the reform of the implementation of measures should be available as early as the beginning of 2022. For the first quarter, Zadić announced the draft to tighten corruption criminal law in an APA interview. In the judiciary and “in general”, Zadić hopes that “calm will return” with the new ÖVP Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
Hope for more rest
After a year full of excitement and attacks by the ÖVP on the judiciary – in view of the investigations by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office against ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his entourage – Zadić is now “confident that there will generally be more calm.” The cooperation with Nehammer, former Minister of the Interior, has worked well so far. Now as Chancellor he is “more conciliatory in his choice of words” and shows himself to be consensus-oriented. Quiet is also “urgently needed, because we have to lead the country out of the pandemic,” commented Zadić.
In January she will hold the conversation she initiated with the legal protection officer Gabriele Aicher. The latter had sharply criticized the WKStA investigation and lodged a complaint – as it became known, advised by the law firm Ainedter, which also represents two accused ÖVP politicians. In terms of content, the Minister of Justice does not want to judge this, it is a matter for the Higher Regional Court. But “the optics were not good,” she says of Aicher’s “media work”. Because “the independence of the judiciary must always be visible to the outside world”.
Expect resistance
Not only with this investigation, but with the Ibiza scandal, loopholes in corruption criminal law became apparent. Zadić wants to close this with a change in the law – which is also her contribution to the transparency and anti-corruption package promised since the start of the turquoise-green coalition. It also contains the soon-to-be-announced tightening of the party financing law (which will be drawn up in parliament) and the freedom of information law, which constitution minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) is trying to push through against some resistance.
Zadić has already submitted her draft on corruption criminal law to the ÖVP for a political vote. The cornerstones are an extended criminal liability for the purchase of a mandate and the expansion of the term “official” in the case of bribery. It should also be punishable if a politician promises a certain service for money or other advantages, even before he has the corresponding function of a “public official”.
Working group and advisory board in action
The transfer of the right to issue instructions to public prosecutors from the minister to a federal public prosecutor is not yet in sight. To this end, Zadić not only set up a working group, but also set up an advisory board, which includes the former Vice Chancellor Clemens Jabloner, former Supreme Court President Irmgard Griss, the constitutional lawyers Bernd-Christian Funk and Heinz Mayer, and the former WKStA boss Walter Geyer.
The two bodies have different tasks, explained Zadić: The working group of high-ranking active lawyers is to develop a model for the new top directors. If you make such a profound change, “the system must be better than it is now. We cannot allow the reform to bring in political influence through the back door.” At the same time, however, a broad political and social consensus would be needed. The advisory board should prepare the ground for this, with a broad discussion of the reports of the working group.
Implementation of measures is to be reformed
Reform of the implementation of measures has long been called for, amid some criticism of the situation. Zadić wants to implement it in 2022. The accommodation of mentally ill lawbreakers is his “very sensitive area”, since it is about human rights – and improvements are “urgent”. The reform has two parts: Part one with the necessary changes in criminal law and criminal procedure law has already been assessed, the government bill will be ready soon. Zadić intends to submit the second part – the amendment to the Law on Implementation of Measures – for assessment in the middle of the year.
Source: Nachrichten
