Shredder affair

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The shredder affair or scandal , also known as the Reisswolf affair , is a political affair in Austria in which, in May 2019, shortly before a successful motion of no confidence against the Federal Government of Kurz I ( ÖVP ), five printer hard drives from an employee of the Federal Government of Kurz I were destroyed using a false name.

The incident became public and aroused great media and political attention. A preliminary investigation by the public prosecutor's office was closed on all points.

procedure

A Reisswolf truck on the company's premises.

After the Ibiza affair became known on May 17, 2019, Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache announced his resignation the next day, and in the evening Chancellor Sebastian Kurz ended the turquoise-blue coalition . The NOW list announced on May 20, 2019 a motion of no confidence against the Chancellor. On May 22, 2019, an employee of the Federal Chancellery called Reisswolf under the false name of Walter Maisinger with the request to destroy data carriers. According to a Reisswolf employee, he appeared visibly nervous the following day, never let his eyes off the hard drives and insisted on shredding the five hard drives three times and taking the parts back with him.

On May 27, 2019, the SPÖ introduced a motion of no confidence against the Federal Government Kurz I in the National Council, which was successful with the support of the FPÖ and Liste Jetzt. Kurz then gave a speech in the Springer-Schlössl in Vienna , the seat of the Political Academy of the ÖVP . The Reisswolf employees also saw these scenes on television, in the background they recognized the man who had presented himself as Walter Maisinger . The phone number given by Maisinger was used to come up with his real name.

After Maisinger had not paid the bill of around 76 euros at Reisswolf and ignored reminders, the managing director of Reisswolf filed a complaint of fraud. According to his own admission, the managing director was referred to the public prosecutor who is responsible for the Ibiza affair. On July 20, 2019, the story was published by the daily newspaper Kurier under the title Operation Shredder , initially about a printer hard drive. On July 23, 2019, the weekly newspaper Der Falter published a surveillance video showing Walter Maisinger shredding.

It has not yet been clarified what was on the hard drives. The statement by the ÖVP was that it is a printer hard drive that temporarily stores printouts in printer format. At zeit.de the assumption was made that this was not plausible due to the extensive destruction, and that it must have been computer hard drives with sensitive documents.

On August 26, 2019, the Federal Chancellery announced that the destruction of hard drives by external companies was a legally compliant process with regard to the Federal Archives Act , which was also carried out by the previous government of Kern ( SPÖ ). The Chancellery also confirmed that the five hard drives that were destroyed were built into printers or multifunctional devices.

consequences

Sebastian Kurz described shredding as a normal procedure .

ÖVP General Secretary Karl Nehammer was a guest at ZIB2 with Armin Wolf on July 23, 2019 and commented on the allegations and justified it with the fear of a leak on the part of the many social democratic officials in the Federal Chancellery . The SPÖ-dominated service committee rejected allegations and called for Federal Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein to intervene . Bierlein defended the officials of the Chancellery in an interview that all officials and employees in the Federal Chancellery did an excellent job and were incredibly loyal.

The former general director of the Austrian State Archives, Wolfgang Maderthaner , found the destruction of the hard drives to be a violation of the Federal Archives Act . Government business documents must be handed over to the Federal Archives, whereupon they are sealed and kept for 25 years.

List-Now-MP Peter Pilz called for a special session of the National Council in August 2019. The green top candidate Werner Kogler saw enough material for an investigative committee that is to be set up after the 2019 National Council election and to deal with the Ibiza video in addition to the shredder affair.

The former SPÖ Federal Chancellor Christian Kern contradicted his successor Kurz, saying that data carriers were also destroyed when Kern handed over to office. All documents had been handed over to the State Archives in accordance with the law. Kern announced legal action should Kurz not take back the statements.

According to a report by the Kronen Zeitung on July 30, 2019, according to an order confirmation / file BKA-410.413 from December 1, 2017, hard drives were destroyed by BKA officials before Kern was handed over to his successor Kurz, and seven printer data carriers are said to have been destroyed. The bill came to around 2,100 euros. Kern emphasized on Facebook that he had not given an order to do this; over 40,000 documents would have been handed over to the State Archives in the course of his handover. NOW MP Pilz reported Kurz and two employees in the Chancellery in connection with the shredder affair. According to the presentation of the facts to the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA), the destruction of data carriers could constitute fraud, damage to property and data and the suppression of evidence.

At the beginning of August 2019, the Kronen-Zeitung reported that after the state elections in Carinthia in 2013, after the election defeat of the Carinthian Freedom Party, around 36.5 tons of documents and 18 data carriers were said to have been shredded.

In a response to a query , Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein confirmed the destruction of hard drives at the end of August 2019. The deletion of data, as it was done when the government was handed over to the Kurz und Kern government, is legitimate. The destruction of hard drives by external companies is a legally compliant process. The internal memories contained only temporary data that would not fall under the Federal Archives Act.

On September 2, the WKStA stated that, according to their investigation status, there was no connection between the shredder affair and the Ibiza video. Therefore, the case now went from the WKStA to the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office, which had to check whether the destruction of the hard drives is criminally relevant apart from the Ibiza case.

On February 10, 2020, the ÖVP announced, citing the lawyer of the party employee, that the proceedings had been discontinued on all points. The termination of the investigation was also confirmed by the public prosecutor the next day. According to the reasons for the discontinuation, on the one hand no intent to enrich it was proven and on the other hand it is assumed that the authorized persons have consented to the destruction of the hard drives. Regarding the suspicion of the suppression of evidence, there was no possibility of reconstructing the data.

In March 2020 it became known that a police officer who had investigated the matter had been an ÖVP candidate in the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 2015 . According to the WKStA, he took “problematic actions” during the investigation. He is said to have returned the accused's cell phone without evaluation and failed to secure his laptop. As a result, the suspicion of finding evidence of a possible client could not be checked. The police officer was later withdrawn from the investigation because he was in SMS contact with Heinz-Christian Strache , who was the subject of the investigation, during the investigation into the Ibiza affair .

In May 2020, the courier reported that the cabinet employee who had the hard drives shredded had been promoted to head of unit in the Chancellery.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Reisswolf affair puts Kurz under pressure. In: derStandard.at . July 23, 2019, accessed July 31, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Splinter-like findings from the shredder affair. In: derStandard.at . July 24, 2019, accessed July 25, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c Shredder affair: "Never happened in 25 years". In: nachrichten.at . July 23, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Chronology of the shredder affair. July 24, 2019, accessed July 25, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Operation shredder: Kurz employees had data from the Chancellery destroyed incognito. In: kurier.at . July 20, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Herbert Lackner : secret operation Reisswolf. In: zeit.de . July 23, 2019, accessed September 2, 2019.
  7. ↑ In Kurz und Kern: Shredding for the Chancellery is legitimate. In: orf.at . August 26, 2019, accessed September 14, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Shredder affair: Briefly calls the procedure "sloppiness". In: diepresse.com . July 26, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  9. ^ ÖVP defends the "shredder affair". In: diepresse.com . July 24, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Shredder affair: Officials in the Chancellery outraged by ÖVP. In: diepresse.com . July 26, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Bierlein stands behind officials from the Chancellery. In: orf.at . July 27, 2019, accessed July 28, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Bierlein backs Chancellery officials in the shredder affair. In: diepresse.com . July 27, 2019, accessed July 28, 2019 .
  13. ^ Shredder affair: violation of the Federal Archives Act located. In: orf.at . July 26, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  14. ↑ The shredder affair could occupy the House. In: nachrichten.at . July 25, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Shredder affair: Kern contradicts Kurz and threatens a lawsuit. In: orf.at . July 26, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Hard drives destroyed even before the core was handed over. In: orf.at . July 30, 2019, accessed July 30, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Carinthia election 2013: 36 tons of paper are said to have been shredded. In: diepresse.com . August 1, 2019, accessed August 1, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Shredder orgy: 36.5 tons of files destroyed. In: krone.at . August 1, 2019, accessed August 1, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Shredder affair: Chancellery: deletion under Kurz and Kern was legitimate. In: kleinezeitung.at . August 26, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2019 .
  20. ↑ WKStA: No connection between "Ibiza video" and shredding. In: orf.at . September 2, 2019, accessed September 2, 2019.
  21. ↑ Briefly wants to implement Van der Bellen's proposal for the VfGH presidency. In: derstandard.at . February 10, 2020, accessed February 11, 2020.
  22. ↑ Investigation into shredder affair suspended. In: orf.at . February 11, 2020, accessed February 11, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Shredder Affair": Investigators with ÖVP connections responsible. In: orf.at . March 9, 2020, accessed May 28, 2020.
  24. ↑ “Shredder affair” creates new tensions. In: orf.at . March 10, 2020, accessed May 28, 2020.
  25. ↑ Investigators hoped for Strache's "resignation from resignation". In: derstandard.at . March 10, 2020, accessed May 28, 2020.
  26. ↑ Shredder affair: hard drive shredder now in the Chancellery In: kurier.at . May 28, 2020, accessed June 8, 2020.