Lewit against Austria

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Lewit against Austria was a complaint procedure by Holocaust survivor Aba Lewit before the European Court of Human Rights because of the rejection of a complaint against the magazine Die Aula by an Austrian court. In October 2019, the ECHR condemned the Republic of Austria for violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights .

prehistory

In July 2015, in an article in the right-wing extremist monthly magazine Die Aula, those liberated from Mauthausen concentration camp in 1945 were described as "plagues" and "mass murderers" who roamed the country "robbing and plundering, murdering and desecrating". As a result, Member of the National Council Harald Walser ( The Greens - The Green Alternative ) filed a complaint with the Graz Public Prosecutor's Office in September 2015 on suspicion of re- activation , which, however, dropped the case. The reason given was, among other things, that it was understandable that the release of several thousand people had represented a nuisance for the affected areas and that it could not be ruled out that criminal acts were committed. Walser immediately directed a parliamentary question to Justice Minister Wolfgang Brandstetter , because he saw the attitude in "scandalously indirectly updated the Nazi judicature". In the answer to the question in March 2016, the Justice Minister defended the termination of the proceedings as legally correct, but at the same time criticized the choice of words for the reasons for the termination.

Thereupon survivors and descendants of survivors of the Holocaust, including Rudolf Gelbard and the daughter Leon Zelmans , sued the magazine under civil law for libel and credit damage and for omission. They were supported by the Greens. On August 5, 2016, the Graz Regional Court for Civil Law Matters issued an injunction : Until the final decision in the main proceedings, the auditorium was forbidden to “make and / or disseminate the literal and / or equivalent assertion, the former prisoners / liberated from Mauthausen concentration camp , its sub / satellite camps or other concentration camps were mass murderers and / or a plague for the population and / or plagued the country by robbing and plundering, murdering and defiling and committed the most serious crimes ”. An appeal by the magazine at the Graz Higher Regional Court was rejected in October 2016, and the Supreme Court also confirmed the preliminary injunction in January 2017. In February 2017, the Graz Regional Court for Civil Law Matters was issued: All of the plaintiffs' claims were recognized. The newspaper had to revoke the insults of concentration camp survivors and pay the costs of the proceedings. Lewit was not involved in this litigation.

In February 2016, Die Aula published another article directed against Walser, in which the termination of the proceedings was reported and the incriminating statements were quoted. On the other hand, Harald Walser initiated media law proceedings for defamation and insult. The Graz Regional Court for Criminal Matters ruled against the interests of the surviving concentration camp inmates in September 2016, justifying this with the fact that around 20,000 people had been released from the Mauthausen concentration camp in May 1945, and defamatory statements against this collective, not the defamation of its individual members corresponds. An appeal was lodged on the grounds that in 2016 only very few of those who were freed at the time were alive and could therefore be individually identified by readers of the Aula article. In July 2017, the Graz Higher Regional Court dismissed the appeal without going into the reasoning, but argued that the article from 2016 was only a verbatim reproduction of the original allegations without “any meaning of its own”. Therefore, in February 2018, the Greens supported a complaint by Holocaust survivor Aba Lewit to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

On October 10, 2019, the ECHR condemned the Republic of Austria for violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights , which guarantees the protection of private and family life . Due to the small number of concentration camp prisoners still alive, the statements in question in the Aula article from February 2016 concerned Aba Lewit personally. The Austrian court thus inadmissibly failed to protect Lewit from the defamatory statements.

The Republic was sentenced to pay € 5,000 in non-pecuniary damages and € 648.48 in material damages, as well as to pay the legal costs. Austria is now obliged to make another decision on the case and to take the objected point into account when correcting the case law.

Reactions

Justice Minister Clemens Jabloner sees the judgment as an "important signal for the judiciary to become aware of its responsibility for the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime."

Aba Lewit was satisfied with the ECHR judgment. He wants to donate the damages awarded to him to four Jewish schools in Vienna.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Leonhard: Debate about FPÖ magazine “Aula” - prisoners legitimately vilified. In: TAZ . February 11, 2016.
  2. ↑ 7633 / AB from March 25, 2016 to 7910 / J (XXV.GP). In: parlament.gv.at . Query response, March 25, 2016, accessed on October 20, 2019 (PDF; 301 kB).
  3. ↑ Werner Reisinger: Concentration camp survivors complain about right-wing extremist “auditorium”. In: wienerzeitung.at . July 7, 2016, accessed February 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Greens: preliminary injunction against "Aula" articles. In: orf.at . August 12, 2016, accessed February 27, 2019.
  5. ↑ Werner Reisinger: Success for lawsuit against right-wing "Aula". In: wienerzeitung.at . November 10, 2016, accessed February 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Article about concentration camp prisoners: Supreme Court decides against “Aula”. In: diepresse.com . January 7, 2017, accessed February 27, 2019 .
  7. ^ "Aula" affair: magazine must revoke insults. In: diepresse.com . February 15, 2017, accessed February 27, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Harald Walser : “Auditorium” scandal before the European Court of Human Rights. In: haraldwalser.at . February 11, 2018, accessed October 20, 2019.
  9. ↑ Colette M. Schmidt: Concentration camp prisoners called “land plague”: ECHR deals with “auditorium”. In: derstandard.at . February 11, 2018, accessed February 27, 2019 .
  10. ↑ ECHR condemns Austria in "land plagues" case. In: derstandard.at . October 10, 2019, accessed October 10, 2019.
  11. ^ Victims of Nazi Germany successful with lawsuit against republic In: orf.at . October 10, 2019, accessed October 10, 2019.
  12. ↑ Peter Münch: A slap in the face for Austria's judiciary. In: sueddeutsche.de . October 10, 2019, accessed October 20, 2019.
  13. ↑ Concentration camp survivors insulted: Austria has to pay a fine. In: Today . October 11, 2019, page 8.
  14. ^ Victims of National Socialism satisfied with the verdict against the Republic In: orf.at . October 11, 2019, accessed October 20, 2019.