Criticism of the amendment to tighten the NS Prohibition Act

2023-07-13 15:10:00

The Mauthausen Committee Austria (MKÖ), ÖGB and Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens), on the other hand, consider it positive that civil servants will automatically lose their jobs in the future if they are convicted.

The change in the law should also make it possible to take more effective action once morest the wearing of modified yellow Jewish stars, as happened during the “Corona demonstrations”. According to the plans, it will also be punishable if relevant content is posted from abroad with the destination Austria. Furthermore, a new regulation should enable the authorities to take Nazi memorabilia out of circulation without criminal proceedings. Currently, items can only be confiscated if there is reconfirmation. Mere possession is not punishable. Diversion in adults should also be made possible.

“Impression of trivialization”

The last point in particular annoys the MKÖ. “Any impression that these crimes are trivialized must be avoided. In most cases, adult first-time offenders act on the basis of a well-established Nazi ideology (…)”, the statement says. For the most part, the amendment is an improvement, but the MKÖ criticizes two other points: Those who deny the Holocaust can only be punished if they do so in front of at least ten people. “Anyone who shows the Hitler salute in front of a single person would be punished, but whoever praises the Holocaust at the regulars’ table of nine people would not be punishable,” said MKÖ board member Robert Eiter. So far, there has been no precise number of people in the Holocaust trivialization in the law, but in the case law this has usually been interpreted as around 30 people. “Circles involved in the matter” told the daily newspaper “Der Standard” that the expansion of three people in the first draft to ten was a wish of the ÖVP.

In the case of crimes committed abroad, the MKÖ takes issue with the fact that the judiciary in Austria can only become active if “it is a matter of a message or presentation in a medium that might be accessed or received domestically and is likely to violate public peace. ” This is a “real gift for all criminal defense lawyers for neo-Nazis,” said Eiter.

Support for the amendment came from the Higher Regional Court of Vienna. In any case, an additional burden is to be expected, which can only be countered with more staff. “If the necessary resources are not available, we can only advise once morest this legislative proposal.” The Regional Court of Klagenfurt and the Association of Public Prosecutors also expect an additional burden. The Ministry of Finance, on the other hand, assumes that the workload for the locally responsible regional courts and public prosecutors’ offices will be spread across the entire federal territory and “can be managed with the human resources available in the judiciary”. The BMF presupposes that the additional budgetary expenditure “is at least covered within the specified personnel and budget framework.”

Confiscation of Nazi memorabilia is welcomed

The public prosecutors welcome the new regulation for the confiscation of Nazi memorabilia, since in the past it has repeatedly been necessary to return relevant objects due to a lack of appropriate authorization – even to people who were considered “consensual offenders”. The association of public prosecutors does not see a possible “minimizing effect” through divergent action like the MKÖ. This will be “the exception and not the rule”. According to the association, the responsibility should be discussed. Jury courts are responsible for offenses under the Prohibition Act, but identical acts would be judged differently by different jury courts, which is why a shift to lay judges, which decide with the participation of professional judges, would be possible.

In principle, the union also welcomes the change in the law. However, the possibility of diversion for adults is “completely missed”. “An important closing of the gap” is the planned automatic job loss, the Chamber of Labor states. In practice, however, diversionary execution would play a significant role here, since this only threatens in the case of final convictions. “Any illegal action by a civil servant that is likely to cast doubt on the democratic Republic of Austria should lead to a loss of office.” Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) also welcomes the job loss in the public sector. Furthermore, the limit of the group of people should be corrected downwards, emphasize the ÖGB and AK. The AK also welcomes the possibility of confiscating objects even if they have not yet been used to commit a crime. However, what counts as relevant subject should be further specified.

The amendment is also supported in statements by the Supreme Court and the competent offices of the Vienna and Salzburg state governments. According to Statistics Austria, the number of convictions under the Prohibition Act has increased significantly in recent years. While there were 40 convictions in 2010, the number rose to 67 in 2015 and then to 128 in 2020. In 2021 there were 207 convictions, then 215 in 2022.

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