Cause Golowatow

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The Golowatow case is an affair about the application of the EU norms of the European arrest warrant to the release of the KGB officer Mikhail Golowatow from the Austrian arrest .

history

In October 2010, Lithuania issued an EU arrest warrant for the Russian colonel of the Soviet secret service KGB Mikhail Golovatov, as he is said to have been one of the main actors in the bloody crackdown on protests in Vilnius by Soviet troops on January 13, 1991. On this "Bloody Sunday" 14 civilians died and more than 1000 were injured when they tried to peacefully and unarmed in the struggle for independence to prevent the KGB special unit ALFA from occupying the television tower .

Golowatov was in possession of a Schengen visa issued by Finland in November 2009 before the arrest warrant was issued. With this visa, he traveled through several EU countries (including Germany , France and Cyprus ), but was only checked in Austria because he was flying from Russia through an external border of the Schengen area and on July 14, 2011 at Vienna Airport. Schwechat arrested.

Due to the fact that the arrest warrant issued by Lithuania for crimes before 2002 does not apply, Austria carried out a case-by-case examination. Because the information provided by Lithuania as part of the arrest warrant was "too vague" according to the Vienna Foreign Ministry (the crime scene, time and course of the crime were missing), the accused was released within 24 hours of being arrested.

According to Austrian law, Golowatov could have been detained for two days to investigate the suspicion. But the prosecution has not exhausted them. In a similar case in Italy, they would have had 40 days to provide documents. This was argued with the fact that Lithuania had failed to answer the questions “Where and when did Golovatov take which concrete acts” in due time.

Latvia and Estonia, along with Lithuania, criticized the release of the wanted Russian officer. The foreign ministers of the three countries also involved the European Commission - specifically Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding . In Vilnius there were calls for a boycott against Austria. Lithuania drew diplomatic consequences. The head of the Foreign Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament, Emanuelis Zingeris , threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Austria. Reding confirmed that Austria had acted completely correctly from a legal point of view, but also emphasized the political dimensions of this cause and called for open cooperation within the EU.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Golowatow: Balts form the front against Austria
  2. ↑ With a Finnish visa across Schengen, Der Standard, July 22, 2011
  3. ↑ a b (K) a delivery case in the classic sense, Der Standard, July 27, 2011
  4. ^ Protest note and history book presented
  5. ↑ Seldom have Austrian authorities been so unbureaucratic
  6. ↑ Dispute about ex-KGB officer: Lithuania threatens to break off relations
  7. ↑ Austria acted in accordance with the law