Justice: Richterbund: Prosecutors have to become more independent

According to the German judge (DRB), the public prosecutors in Germany must be better protected against political influence. “Especially at a time when right-wing populist parties are across Europe and are often looking for the sample of power with the judiciary, there must be no gates of the political misuse of the law enforcement,” said DRB federal manager Sven Rebehn of the German Press Agency. “In the wrong hands, a political right of crossing would be fatal to concrete criminal proceedings.”

The public prosecutors in Germany are not independent by law. “The officials of the public prosecutor have to comply with the official instructions of their supervisor,” says the Court Constitution Act. For the general public prosecutor and the federal prosecutors, the Federal Ministry of Justice has been supervised and headed for the public prosecutors in the event of low -ranking courts.

“Due to the lack of legal restrictions on any public prosecutor’s task and at all times. For example, it can be about the question of whether a crime is pursued or whether assets are moved in.

Rebehn: Germany is pretty alone

From the judge’s perspective, an absurdity. “The only evidence that ministers could have criminal proceedings in the background shakes trust in an objective and only committed law enforcement,” said Rebehn. “The Federal Government should therefore follow the example of Austria and eliminate weaknesses in the judicial architecture.”

In Austria, the government of conservative ÖVP, Social Democratic SPÖ and Liberal NEOS recently agreed to create a three -member federal prosecutor, which will take over the highest technical supervision of the prosecutors in the future. So far, this task was at the top of the Ministry of Justice.

Rebehn said: “With its antiquated legal situation, Germany will be there in the future in Europe.” The European Court of Justice has questioned the independence of German public prosecutors in decisions.

Richterbund sees NRW as a model

The traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Greens and FDP had at least wanted to improve the influence on public prosecutors. Instructions from the Justice Minister of the Bund and the countries to the public prosecutors should only be justified in writing, based on a bill of Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP). However, the project was no longer implemented. There are no corresponding plans in the coalition agreement between the CDU, CSU and SPD.

Rebehn sees North Rhine-Westphalia as a model. Minister of Justice Benjamin Limbach (Greens) there had criticized Buschmann’s plans as inadequate and made further proposals. It should only intervene if the ministry recognizes legal errors, but the Attorney General does not intervene.