Andreas Scheuer: Ex-transport minister for false statements charged with false statements

The Berlin public prosecutor has charged the former Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer for the allegation of an unassarital false statement before the toll investigation committee of the Bundestag. Former State Secretary Gerhard Schulz is also accused, as a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office of the dpa news agency said. The “picture” had previously reported. According to the public prosecutor’s office, Scheuer is charged with the district court because of the special importance of the case.

The former CSU politician had denied the allegation legally persecuted since 2022. The “Bild” newspaper now said: “The decision to raise charges is not understandable for me and affects me. The motives and the time for the indictment are incomprehensible to me and appear more politically motivated. After such a long time of the investigation, the public prosecutor uses exactly the so-called media summer hole for the indictment.” Scheuer was initially not available for a request from the dpa.

The Berlin public prosecutor initiated an investigation against Scheuer in May 2022 on suspicion of a false statement in the Bundestag committee of inquiry and the former Secretary of State Schulz. The initial suspicion is that Scheuer and Schulz had “deliberately truthfully” stated in a testimony, it said at the time.

Anyone who false in court or in front of someone else, who is responsible for witnesses or experts as a witness or expert, is wrongly punished, according to the Criminal Code, with prison sentence of three months to five years

Specifically, it was about Scheuer that in October 2020 before the committee of inquiry that, according to his memory, there was no offer from the designated toll operator consortium to postpone the contract to the car toll to a time after the expected judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Managers of the toll operator companies actually planned had reported such a range of Scheuer in the committee that this rejected this.

The car toll-a prestige project by the CSU in the then black and red federal government-was stopped by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in June 2019. An investigation committee then dealt with Scheuer’s possible mistakes. The opposition had accused serious mistakes in budgetary and procurement law at the expense of taxpayers. He concluded contracts for the car toll even before legal certainty existed in the ECJ. Scheuer had always denied the allegations.

As a result of the toll debacle, the German state had to pay 243 million euros in damages to the operators once planned. This had resulted in an agreement according to an arbitration procedure. Scheuer had said in May 2022 that he truthfully stated before the committee of inquiry: “I firmly assume that a review will not come to any other result.” According to the information from the public prosecutor’s office at the time, the investigation was based on several criminal complaints from private individuals.

Scheuer laid his Bundestag mandate in April. He has now founded an advisory company.