Political offense

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The term political offense is a summary term for all offenses directed against the existence or the security of the state, against the highest state organs or against the political rights of citizens, in particular endangering the democratic constitutional state . Historically only majesty or state crimes , lat. Crimen majestatis , French. crime politique , generally any criminal attack against the state and the bearers of state power . In the form of political justice , a political understanding of criminal law serves solely to secure rule.

The term is mentioned today in various legal texts, especially on international legal transactions, but is not defined in more detail. Examples are Section 6 of the Law on International Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (IRG) and Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the European Extradition Convention (EuAlÜbk).

Article 1 of the European Convention to Combat Terrorism (EuTerrÜbk) only contains a negative definition of criminal offenses that are not considered political offenses for extradition purposes .

Federal Republic of Germany

Offenses

In German criminal law, political offenses include the offenses in the first to fourth sections of the special part of the Criminal Code that are committed for political reasons. Politically motivated crime (PMK) has recorded political crimes in the Federal Republic of Germany since 2001 . In addition to the classic state security offenses, this also includes propaganda offenses such as the dissemination of propaganda materials and the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations , property damage and politically motivated acts of violence such as bodily harm and homicides, the coercion of constitutional organs and so-called hate crime with a xenophobic and anti-Semitic background, as well as Islamic terrorism . Left-wing terrorism has been of legal historical significance since the 1970s .

Prosecution

While during the time of National Socialism the prosecution of political crimes was taken over by a special court ( People's Court ) from 1934 and the circle of political crimes was expanded endlessly, in the Federal Republic of Germany criminal prosecution is incumbent on the ordinary jurisdiction . However, special chambers or senates (State Security Chamber / Senate) have been set up in the ordinary courts for political crimes .

For certain political crimes, according to According to § 120 GVG, the respective higher regional courts in whose district the state governments have their seat are competent in the first instance, for example in the NSU process the OLG Munich , otherwise either the regional court or the district court .

The state and federal police forces each have their own state security departments that are responsible for investigating political crimes. The respective offices for the protection of the Constitution of the federal states and the federal government collect and process information about the possible groups of perpetrators in advance.

GDR

According to Article 6 of the GDR Constitution of 1949, " incitement to boycott democratic institutions and organizations" and "incitement to murder democratic politicians" were punishable. At the end of 1957 further political penal regulations were enacted, above all against “defamation of the state”, “espionage” and “tempting to leave the GDR”, which, like Article 6 of the constitution, are mostly used to persecute politically dissenting people or to secure the rule of the SED or the border regime served. After a constitutional amendment in 1968, the criminal "agitation" was removed from the constitution, but incorporated into the penal code . The persecution of " subversive agitation " (§ 106 StGB-GDR) fell within the remit of the Ministry for State Security and was an instrument of disciplining socialist "education".

See also

literature

Monographs

  • Otto Heinrich Ittlinger: The political crime. Cologne 1934.
  • Angela Rustemeyer: Dissent and Honor Majesty Crimes in Russia (1600-1800). Wiesbaden 2006.
  • Reinhard Schiffers: Between civil liberty and state protection. Restoration and revision of the political criminal law in the Federal Republic of Germany 1949–1951. Düsseldorf 1989.
  • Hans Leopold Schmidt-Weiß: From the majesty crime to high treason. The development of the majesty crime in common German criminal law to the offense of high treason within the meaning of the Prussian penal code of 1851 with special consideration of state-philosophical foundations. Heidelberg 1939.
  • Friedrich-Christian Schroeder: The protection of the state and the constitution in criminal law. A systematic presentation, developed from legal history and comparative law. Munich 1970.
  • Karl Härter & Beatrice de Graaf (eds.): From the crime of majesty to terrorism. Political crime, law, justice and police between early modern times and the 20th century (= studies on European legal history. Vol. 268). Klostermann, Frankfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-465-04150-4 .
  • Angela De Benedictis & Karl Härter (ed.): Revolts and political crimes between the 12th and 19th centuries. Legal reactions and legal-political discourses = Revolts and Political Crime from the 12th to the 19th Century. Legal Responses and Juridical-Political Discourses (= Studies on European Legal History. Vol. 285). Klostermann, Frankfurt 2013, ISBN 978-3-465-04198-6 .

Essays

  • Hans von Hentig : Political Crimes of the Present. In: German criminal law newspaper. 6, 1919, col. 218-222.
  • Helga Schnabel-Schüle: The crime of majesty as protection of power and criticism of power. In: Dietmar Willoweit (Ed.): Staatsschutz. Meiner, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 978-3-7873-1110-1 .
  • Andreas Armborst: Terrorism and Political Violence: Use, Preference and Expectation of Purpose. In: MschrKrim . 2013, pp. 1–13

Lectures

  • Johannes Dillinger : Poison and Fire. Politically motivated attacks on the civilian population in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Political crime and political justice from the Reformation to the 20th century. Joint meeting of the working groups on historical crime research and policey / police in premodern Europe (June 19-21, 2008)
  • Ulrich Huemer: “You have to sit on one buttock for 6 months!”. On dealing with political criminal law using the example of the GDR opposition in the 1980s. Political crime and political justice from the Reformation to the 20th century. Joint meeting of the working groups on historical crime research and policey / police in premodern Europe (June 19-21, 2008)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ political crimes bpb , accessed on May 17, 2016
  2. ^ Political crimes by Meyer's Großes Konversations-Lexikon 1908
  3. ↑ Stephen Rehmke: Politische Justiz Forum Recht Online, 2002
  4. ↑ Heribert Ostendorf : Politische Strafjustiz in Deutschland , in: Kriminalität und Strafrecht, Informations zur Politische Bildung 306, bpb 2010, pp. 23–31
  5. ↑ European extradition convention concluded in Paris on December 13, 1957
  6. ↑ European Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism, concluded in Strasbourg on January 27, 1977
  7. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior : Politically Motivated Crime in 2014. Nationwide case numbers ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2016 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmi.bund.de
  8. ↑ Politically motivated crime website of the Federal Ministry of the Interior , 2016
  9. ↑ Diego Fernando Tarapués Sandino: An analytical approach to the political offense and its current typification in the criminal law systems in Colombia and Germany 2010. Table 3: German political offenses.
  10. ^ Hajo Funke : Definition of politically motivated crime (PMK) August 1, 2012
  11. ^ Constitution of the German Democratic Republic of October 7, 1949
  12. ^ GDR / Criminal Law - Mixed Double Der Spiegel , 53/1967 of December 25, 1967
  13. ↑ Criminal Code of the German Democratic Republic -StGB of January 12, 1968
  14. ↑ Andrea Herz (Ed.): Not - in the name of the people. Political criminal law in the GDR 1949–1961 ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2016 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. Sources for the history of Thuringia 29, 2008. ISBN 978-3-937967-28-8 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lzt-thueringen.de