Karin Gastinger

Karin Gastinger (* March 11, 1964 in Graz as Karin Roditsch ; until July 23, 2005 Karin Miklautsch ) is a former Austrian Federal Minister of Justice ( BZÖ ), from September 25, 2006 independent in the Federal Government Schüssel II .

biography

Your Legal studies concluded Gastinger with the graduation ceremony for Master of Law (Mag. Iur.) From Innsbruck. She gained practical experience in her court internship in Klagenfurt and in a Klagenfurt law firm . Professionally, she worked as a lawyer in the department for environmental protection law in the Carinthian state government. In 1999 she was promoted to head of the Department of Water Law.

On June 25, 2004, Miklautsch was proposed by the FPÖ as the successor to the resigned Dieter Böhmdorfer (FPÖ) as non-party Federal Minister of Justice. The decision to appoint the until then largely unknown Miklautsch as the successor for Böhmdorfer caused astonishment in Austrian domestic politics.

According to official information , Edwin Ndupu died in the Stein prison in August 2004 of a fat embolism after self-inflicted injuries through no fault of her own. The media later reported that 15 specially trained judicial officers beat Edwin Ndupu until he could not get up and tear gas use in closed rooms was mentioned by the media and parliamentary questions. In October 2004 Justice Minister Miklautsch received 11 of these 15 officials at the ministry and expressed her solidarity and appreciation for the work. The officers also received 2000 euros per person as compensation because Ndupu was HIV positive. A clarification of the facts by an objective external investigation commission was refused.

In the autumn of 2004, the other parties rejected widespread rejection and, with a few exceptions, the FPÖ, too, when they called military officers of the armed forces to assist the prison guard . This proposal has now been put into practice; Members of the armed forces, but only professional soldiers and no military service, provide assistance by performing auxiliary services that do not involve direct contact with prisoners (e.g. as drivers).

Other focal points of her initiatives for the Austrian penal system were the first use of electronic shackles for conditional dismissals and the introduction of charitable services instead of substitute custodial sentences . Gastinger's advocacy of redefining the concept of family and her commitment to extended rights for modern stepfamilies and stepparents, but also her commitment to a state partnership model for same-sex unions, with which she failed both within the party and with her coalition partner, caused a media stir .

After the BZÖ split off from the FPÖ in April 2005, Gastinger, like the FPÖ / BZÖ ministers, remained in the coalition government with the ÖVP and subsequently joined the new party. On April 17, 2005, she was elected deputy to the executive chairman of the BZÖ, Jörg Haider . Compared to her party colleagues from the BZÖ, she was characterized by a more liberal stance, which is not shared by the ÖVP either.

During the election campaign for the National Council election in 2006 , she was nominated by the BZÖ as the top candidate in Styria on July 25, 2006 .

On September 25, 2006, six days before the National Council election, Gastinger announced in an interview with the daily Kurier that he would be leaving the BZÖ. She justified this decision with the fact that she “does not want to be active in any political movement that is xenophobic, that operates with fears” and cites the request of the BZÖ party chairman and top candidate Peter Westenthaler to want to deport 300,000 foreigners in the next few years .

After the end of her political career, Gastinger joined the consulting firm Beyond Consulting (formerly Deloitte Consulting Austria ) of Helmut Kern in 2007 as a partner and managing director , which has been part of the Price Waterhouse Coopers agency since February 1, 2010 .

At the beginning of October 2016 it was announced that she would be working at the Federal Administrative Court from January 2017 . She has been a judge at this court since then.

Corruption allegations

Telecom affair

In the course of the so-called Austria-Telecom affair , the Graz public prosecutor's office started investigations against Karin Gastinger from the beginning of August 2012 on suspicion of illegal party financing, as well as the allocation of bogus offers and price agreements. In addition to other payments, in 2006 Telekom Austria received 240,000 euros for the preferential voting campaign for the Minister of Justice at that time to an advertising agency close to the BZÖ . However, since Gastinger resigned shortly before the election, the campaign was canceled and a large part of the funds passed on to the party.

The investigation against Gastinger was closed in September 2013. The head of the public prosecutor's office Thomas Mühlbacher justified the decision by saying that Gastinger "was not aware of where the funds came from". The case against her then head of cabinet Michael Schön was also discontinued. Tina H., the advertising entrepreneur responsible for Gastinger's campaign, was sentenced to 20 months' conditional imprisonment. The proceedings ( Telekom IV ) ended on September 14, 2013 in the first instance with convictions against the lobbyist Peter Hochegger (30 months imprisonment), the BZÖ member Klaus Wittauer (2 years, 3 months of which absolutely), the advertising entrepreneur Kurt Schmied (30 months in prison) Months, of which 5 months are essential) and Gastinger's press spokesman at the time, Christoph Pöchinger (2 years, of which 8 months are essential). The former Telekom board member Rudolf Fischer was acquitted in this case, the proceedings against the BZÖ federal manager Arno Eccher were continued on the basis of further witnesses. The BZÖ was sentenced to reimburse the entire damage amount of 960,000 euros to the Telekom.

Intervention for bwin board members

On September 15, 2006, the two board members of the Austrian betting company bwin, Norbert Teufelberger and Manfred Bodner, were arrested at a press conference in Monaco for offenses against the French gaming law. After questioning by an examining magistrate, the two board members were released from custody on the evening of September 18, 2006 on bail. In her function as Minister of Justice, Gastinger intervened with the French authorities for the quick release of the two board members. Gastinger is said to have received a consulting contract from the gaming company after retiring from politics.

family

On July 23, 2005 she married Heinz Gastinger and took the family name of her husband; Son Max was born on July 19, 2006.

Publications

• “Public Sector Audit” . Linde Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-70731491-5

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karin Gastinger on the website of the Austrian Parliament
2. ↑ ^{a b} 08 01 2010 at 14:44 by Simon Inou: Police violence against Africans: A chronology. January 8, 2010, accessed May 31, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Who will be the next black man? - derStandard.at. Accessed May 31, 2020 (Austrian German). 
4. ↑ "Violent Death". Accessed May 31, 2020 . 
5. ↑ 2358 / J (XXII. GP) - Death of the deportee Edwin Ndupu. Accessed May 31, 2020 . 
6. ↑ ORF -online: Gastinger turns his back on oranges  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , September 25, 2006  
7. ↑ Mag. Karin Gastinger, PricewaterhouseCoopers, 5/2010 ( Memento of the original dated February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , In: austrianbusinesswoman.at
8. ^ Agency Beyond Consulting: Our corporate structure , accessed on February 16, 2014
9. ↑ Beyond Consulting's team of experts changes to PwC , Price Waterhouse Coopers press release, 2010
10. ↑ derStandard.at - Ex-Minister Gastinger from January at the administrative court . Article dated October 3, 2016, accessed October 4, 2016.
11. ↑ Division of responsibilities of the Federal Administrative Court (accessed June 18, 2017).
12. ^ Public prosecutor is investigating ex-Minister Gastinger. In: derstandard.at , 23 August 2012
13. ↑ Investigations against ex-Justice Minister Gastinger concluded. ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: derboersianer.com, July 23, 2013
14. ^ U-Committee: Werber Schmied incriminates BZÖ . In: ORF . February 14, 2012
15. ↑ ^{a b} Proceedings against ex-Justice Minister Gastinger suspended. In: derstandard.at, September 6, 2013
16. ↑ No problem for the current election campaign . In: ORF . September 14, 2013
17. ^ Final acquittal for ex-board member Fischer in the BZÖ case. In: Wiener Zeitung , September 18, 2013
18. ↑ bwin with an update on the current situation . In: boerse-express.com, September 19, 2006
19. ↑ Florian Horcicka: Suspicion of corruption: bwin reward for Karin Gastinger. , In: format.at , August 31, 2012

Web links

• Karin Gastinger on the website of the Austrian Parliament
• Communiqué of the committee of inquiry to clarify allegations of corruption (910 / GO XXIV. GP) , minutes of the committee of inquiry of the 10th meeting on February 15, 2012. Persons providing information: Mag. Tina Haslinger, Christoph Pöchlinger, Mag. Karin Gastinger, Mag. Marielouise Gregory