Secret process
A secret process is a judicial process that is characterized by the exclusion of the public and the possible legal disadvantage of the accused as a result. Secret processes are an essential feature of authoritarian states and dictatorships . In modern constitutional states , secret processes are legally excluded, for example in Germany by the code of criminal procedure . In many totalitarian states, secret processes are still part of state oppression today .
Characteristic
As a rule, a secret process does not serve to find justice, but rather to assert the interests of the ruling group against political or other opponents. It is generally not open to the public , nor is it reported in the media. The judgment or the reasons for the judgment are often not published. Often there is also no formal indictment or the defendant is not given access to the statement of claim. Often the accused is denied legal assistance by a lawyer or is assigned a public defender who acts ineffectively or even in accordance with the indictment. Nor can he name any witnesses to exonerate him. Usually the convicted person has no chance to appeal against the judgment, i.e. to have it reviewed by another instance .
history
Secret trials have been a constant feature of most authoritarian or injustice regimes of the modern era. There were also secret trials in the Middle Ages, such as the Feme . The most famous recent example are the Stalinist purges under Stalin . Although the Moscow show trials in particular became known, most of the victims were sentenced in secret trials. This included, along with thousands of others, Mikhail Tukhachevsky and other Red Army officers , whose execution was only announced after the execution. The presiding judge of the Moscow show trials, Vasily Ulrich , also led a large number of secret trials, some of which lasted only a few minutes.
The GDR also carried out secret trials. The best-known example are the Waldheim trials , a small fraction of which also took place as public show trials. Werner Teske was sentenced to death in a secret trial in 1981 and shot; the authorities even concealed the cause of death from his family.
According to Amnesty International from 2006, secret trials were common judicial practice in China , Iran , Uzbekistan , Oman , Nigeria and Ethiopia, among others .
Demarcation from closed-door processes in the Federal Republic of Germany
In the Federal Republic of Germany , the exclusion of the public is permitted under special legal conditions . This is regularly the case with juvenile and sexual offenses in order to protect the interests of the victims , but also with state security proceedings or treason and high treason proceedings if the facts are subject to confidentiality . The legal basis is the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO), the Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) and the Courts Constitution Act (GVG), Sections 169–175. An example of the usual practice of public exclusion was the treason trial in 1991 against Gabriele guest that as a government director in the Federal Intelligence Service for decades for the Ministry of State Security of the GDR had been spying.
Such procedures with reference to the secret service are sometimes referred to in the press as "secret process" or "secret process". In 2002, for example, criminal proceedings were carried out against the Federal Intelligence Service employee Norbert Juretzko , in which the public was also excluded. Juretzko was accused of embezzling agent fees in the aftermath of the affair involving high-ranking BND employee Volker Foertsch . Only after the publication of Juretzko's book Conditionally Ready for Service 2005 was the first report on the procedure. The Berliner Tagesspiegel wrote about the case: "The trial took place behind closed doors in the Munich Regional Court, until today Juretzko is not allowed to talk about the trial." Münchner Merkur reported on the same topic: " Foertsch was rehabilitated and Juretzko was convicted in a secret trial, because he is said to have cheated the BND for money. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Betrayed and Sold: Trial of Ex-Agents. , Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, April 27, 2006
- ↑ Vain amateurs on a paper chase - How an ex-agent settles with the BND through revelations Münchner Merkur Online, May 8, 2006
