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As the Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (VP) announced the day before, the Council of Ministers yesterday established an “independent inquiry commission” by means of a circular resolution. Ingeborg Zerbes, a professor of criminal law, heads the five-person committee that is supposed to examine possible complaints and errors by the authorities before the terrorist attack in central Vienna.
The deputy director of the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, who only returned to Vienna from the University of Bremen last year, is a proven expert when it comes to examining the role of the BVT in protecting the constitution.
Zerbes has already dealt with Secret Service work and its legal limits in book form under the title “Spy, spy, spy.” Another member of the commission, Franz Merli, also teaches as a professor at the Vienna Juridicum.
Former Munich Police Chief
An international expert, former Munich police chief Hubertus Andrä, was also appointed. The other members: Herbert Anderl, who was Director General of Public Security in the Ministry of the Interior from 2009 until his retirement at the end of 2012, and Werner Pleischl, former head of the Attorney General’s Office and the Board of Directors of the Ministry of Justice.
Nehammer emphasized that the composition of the commission was not political, but purely technical. This will now “examine the processes very carefully and clarify transparently.” Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) spoke of an “excellent” commission. The terrorist act will now be examined and prosecuted in detail. The findings must flow into the implementation of the counterterrorism package. As in the planned reform of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Against Terrorism.
Zerbes emphasized that the Commission was concerned about “an unconditional clarification that is independent of political attitudes and as accurate as possible.” The group was put together in such a way that each individual member could guarantee this independence.
The committee is now examining how state security, police, judicial authorities and the prison system treat the Islamist KF until his death after the November 2 attack. The first report should be available in four weeks.
Skepticism prevailed in the opposition. With Nehammer, the minister created the body whose responsibility should be examined, said SP club vice president Jörg Leichtfried. Because the commission had to present a first report “within four weeks”, Leichtfried spoke of a “certificate of good health in the emergency procedure” for Nehammer. For the FPÖ, Anderl is “made a goat for a gardener” in commission.
Also for Neos defense spokesman Douglas Hoyos, a commission in which two senior officials clearly assigned to the vice presidency feel “cannot be independent.” He demanded that the body submit reports to parliament independently.
Article of
Lucian Mayringer
Startup Policy Editor
