Sebastian Edathy

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Sebastian Edathy (2013)

Sebastian Edathy (* 5. September 1969 in Hannover as Sebastian Edathiparambil ) is a former German politician ( SPD ). He was a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2014 . There he was Chairman of the Interior Committee from 2005 to 2009 and a member of the Legal Committee from 2009 to 2013 . From 2012 he headed the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the NSU terror group . With a declaration on February 6, 2014, he resigned his mandate shortly before the official investigation against him became known on the suspicion of having obtained child pornographic material . The case sparked the Edathy affair .

Life

Edathy was in Hanover, the son of from Kerala in India coming evangelical born priest Mathew Edathiparambil and his German wife. After graduating from high school in Stolzenau in 1989 , Edathy completed his civil service and then completed a degree in sociology and German linguistics at the University of Hanover , which he completed with a Magister Artium . He moved from Rehburg-Loccum to North Africa during the Edathy affair and is in a relationship with a hotel manager.

Party work and mandate

Edathy has been a member of the SPD since 1990. From 1993 to 1995 he was chairman of the Jusos in the Nienburg district . Since 1993 he has been a member of the board of the SPD sub-district Nienburg. Edathy worked for the Lower Saxony state parliament member Bärbel Tewes from 1990 to 1993 and from 1993 to 1998 personal advisor to the Bundestag member Ernst Kastning .

From 1998 to February 10, 2014 Edathy was a member of the German Bundestag . Edathy has always entered the Bundestag as a directly elected member of the constituency Nienburg II - Schaumburg . In the 2013 Bundestag elections , he received 44.64% of the first votes (1998: 51.8%, 2002: 53.9%, 2005: 51.6%, 2009: 41.39%).

In the Bundestag he had been a member of the executive committee of the SPD parliamentary group since 2000 . From 2000 to 2005 he was the spokesman for the right-wing extremism working group of the SPD parliamentary group. He belonged to the Berlin network . In the 16th Bundestag (2005–2009) Edathy was chairman of the Interior Committee and in the 17th Bundestag a member of the Legal Committee . Since 1998 he has been a member of the parliamentary advisory board of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge . From 2003 to 2007 and 2009 to 2011 he was chairman of the German-Indian parliamentary group, from 2007 to 2009 he headed the German-South Asian parliamentary group (responsible for Afghanistan , Pakistan , Nepal , Bangladesh and Sri Lanka ).

From 2010 to 2011 Edathy was deputy chairman of the first “Gorleben” investigative committee and a member of the SPD “Gorleben” working group in the SPD parliamentary group.

From January 2012 on, Edathy was chairman of the 2nd committee of inquiry of the 17th German BundestagTerror Group National Socialist Underground ” and a member of the corresponding working group of the SPD parliamentary group. The committee examined the neo-Nazi crimes of the alleged terrorist cell National Socialist Underground and the failure of the security authorities to investigate and prevent the crimes. Edathy acquired a great reputation, as Mariam Lau judged among others ; the intensive work there “with cold brilliance and controlled passion” was his “masterpiece”, in that he “meticulously [and] mercilessly” revealed the failure of the officials in questioning. For this he was honored with the Genç Prize in 2013 .

With a declaration dated February 6, 2014, Edathy informed the President of the German Bundestag that he was resigning from his Bundestag mandate for health reasons. The President of the Bundestag confirmed this on February 10, 2014; only then did the waiver take effect ( Section 47 (3) sentence 1 BWahlG ), so that his immunity ( Article 46 (2 ) GG ) continued up to this date. The administration of the German Bundestag did not inform Edathy of the correct date of his departure - after the President of the German Bundestag initially incorrectly referred to February 6, 2014 - only on May 8, 2014. Gabriele Groneberg moved up for him in the Bundestag.

Political positions

In August 2008, in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt , Edathy described the ideas of the CDU on the structuring of citizenship law as being shaped by “ biologism and ethnic ideology ”. In the debate about the so-called option model, several Union politicians had spoken out in favor of reintroducing the principle of descent ( Latin ius sanguinis ). It was not until 2000 that citizenship law was supplemented with the introduction of the place of birth principle ( Latin ius soli ). Edathy alluded to a strengthening of nationalist thinking in conservative circles after the establishment of the German Empire in the second half of the 19th century.

As a result of his statement, the Christian Democratic member of the Bundestag, Kristina Schröder , demanded Edathy's resignation as chairman of the interior committee; At the same time, the Union sent a protest letter to SPD parliamentary group leader Peter Struck . Edathy explained his allegations against the Union in early September 2008 in the Leipziger Volkszeitung . Völkisch thinking has its roots in German conservative politics of the 19th century, but had not previously been used as a leitmotif for questions of citizenship law.

Controversy

Alleged copyright infringement

In September 2011, it became known that Edathy had reported on his Facebook page information from a user about possible copyright infringements by presenting photos of various politicians on his Facebook page with the words "You can sue me" and finally with "You can cross me over" had answered. The online edition of Journalist magazine and other media criticized his approach. Edathy declined an apology, but announced that he would "refrain from taking photos of third parties in the future."

Edathy affair

On February 10, 2014, the Hanover police and public prosecutor's office searched Edathy's apartments and offices in the presence of informed newspaper reporters. This happened on the basis of local and regional court decisions of February 10 and April 1, 2014. The public prosecutor's office announced four days later that Edathy had ordered material in the "border area to what the judiciary understands child pornography" over the Internet. The Bundeskriminalamt not classified in a first evaluation of the material one as unique child pornography. As early as October 2013, the BKA had classified the material ordered online by Edathy as “ criminally irrelevant”. Edathy always denied the acquisition and possession of child pornography .

In February 2014 it became known that in October 2013 the then Federal Minister of the Interior Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) had informed the SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel about the allegations against Edathy. On February 14, 2014, Friedrich therefore resigned from the office of Federal Minister of Agriculture . The party executive of the SPD decided on February 17, 2014 to let Edathy's membership rights rest. Sigmar Gabriel stated that “regardless of criminal relevance”, the board and the presidium were “stunned” that Edathy had acquired nude pictures of young people. That is "incompatible with membership in the German Bundestag and does not fit with the Social Democratic Party of Germany". The SPD arbitration commission in Hanover ordered that an initiated party exclusion procedure be suspended for the duration of the investigation. Edathy stated that he had received several death threats and therefore did not want to return to Germany for the time being.

At the beginning of May 2014, the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office presented the final report of the Hanover public prosecutor's office, which, according to information from the Süddeutsche Zeitung, confirmed that Edathy had accessed criminal child pornographic material in several cases in November 2013 using his office laptop on the German Bundestag's server over the Internet. During the house search, booklets with youth pornographic images and a CD with youth pornographic videos were found. These are not orders from the Canadian Internet provider azovfilms , which were not part of the investigation.

On July 17, 2014, the Hanover public prosecutor charged Edathy with possession of child pornographic photos and videos at the Verden Regional Court . A constitutional complaint by Edathy against the search of his apartment on February 10, 2014, despite his continued immunity, was not accepted for a decision by the 3rd Chamber of the Federal Constitutional Court in August 2014 , because Edathy both the flawedness of the judiciary and the misjudgment of the President of the German The Bundestag was able to recognize “without further ado” and “had to reprimand”. The Verden district court admitted the Hanover public prosecutor's office to be charged on November 14, 2014 and set the first trial date to February 23, 2015.

On December 18, 2014, Edathy explained to the investigative committee of the German Bundestag , which had been set up to deal with his case, under the leadership of Eva Högl (SPD), that Jörg Ziercke (SPD) in the office of President of the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) was the source of information from his informant Michael Hartmann ( SPD) who warned him of the threat of searches.

On March 2, 2015, Edathy admitted in a trial statement from his attorney that "the allegations" were true; he “made a mistake” and “regrets” it. The trial was in accordance with the basis of this "confessed entering an" § 153a StPO upon payment of 5,000 euros set . He has no criminal record due to a lack of conviction. Edathy then emphasized that it was not a confession.

After the federal executive committee of the SPD demanded Edathy's expulsion from the party on March 24, 2015 , he declared that he did not want to leave the party voluntarily. On June 1, 2015, the SPD party arbitration tribunal in the Hanover district decided to suspend Edathy's membership for three years; there was no exclusion. The federal party and Edathy called the Federal Arbitration Commission of the SPD, with which he agreed on February 12, 2016 to suspend his membership for five years, whereas criminal charges are no longer made against him.

Fonts

Web links

Commons : Sebastian Edathy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Excerpt from "Naturalization", edited by Canan Topcu. (No longer available online.) In: Edathy.de. Sebastian Edathy, archived from the original on February 22, 2014 ; Retrieved January 18, 2013 .
  2. Edathy lives in North Africa and is planning a marriage. In: Die Welt , May 27, 2016.
  3. Marcel Fürstenau: NSU Enlightenment: Time is running out. In: Deutsche Welle (online edition). January 16, 2013, accessed January 18, 2013 .
  4. Mariam Lau : The Edathy case: Who is to blame. Highway to Hell. In: Zeit Online , February 20, 2014.
  5. Torsten Hampel: Not too naive. In: Der Tagesspiegel . April 13, 2013.
  6. Order of the Federal Constitutional Court of August 15, 2014, Az. 2 BvR 969/14 , paragraphs 29-30.
  7. Thorsten Jungholt, Martin Lutz: Edathy accuses the Union of ethnic ideology. In: Die Welt (online edition). August 19, 2008, accessed January 18, 2013 .
  8. LVZ: Edathy renews the accusation of "völkisch convictions" to the address of the Union / Grindel: No reliable agreements are possible with Edathy. In: Presseportal.de. news aktuell press portal, September 2, 2008, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved January 18, 2013 .
  9. Heike Rost: Derailments on Facebook - "You can do me - crosswise!" In: Journalist (online edition). September 9, 2011, archived from the original on March 7, 2013 ; Retrieved January 18, 2013 .
  10. Christine Kensche, Alan Posener: Why SPD young star Edathy freaks out on Facebook. In: Die Welt (online edition). September 9, 2011, accessed January 18, 2013 .
  11. Answers to the questions of the world editor A. Posner. (PDF; 38 kB) In: Edathy.de. Sebastian Edathy, September 11, 2011, archived from the original on February 14, 2014 ; Retrieved January 18, 2013 .
  12. ^ Decision of the 3rd Chamber of the BVerfG v. August 15, 2014 - 2 BvR 969/14 - margin no. 32.
  13. ^ Finds at Edathy: Prosecutors speak of "border area to child pornography". In: Der Spiegel , February 14, 2014.
  14. Jörg Fröhlich (Head of the Hanover Public Prosecutor's Office ), YouTube - Video of the press conference on February 14, 2014, Phoenix on site .
  15. Hans Leyendecker , Tanjev Schultz: Edathy case - How "criminally irrelevant" became a raid. In: Süddeutsche.de , February 15, 2014.
  16. Edathy rejects suspected child porn possession. In: Zeit online , February 11, 2014.
  17. Left and FDP demand Friedrich's dismissal. In: Süddeutsche.de , February 14, 2014.
  18. Agriculture Minister Friedrich resigns. ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: heute.de , February 14, 2014.
  19. ^ SPD regulatory procedure: Edathy threatens to be expelled from the party. In: Spiegel Online , February 18, 2014.
  20. Archive link ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ^ Child porn affair: death threats against SPD politician Edathy. In: Spiegel online , February 23, 2014.
  22. Child pornography: State Criminal Police Office heavily incriminates Edathy. In: Süddeutsche.de .
  23. ^ Edathy case: charges against SPD politicians for child pornography. In: Spiegel Online .
  24. ^ Decision of the 3rd Chamber of the BVerfG v. August 15, 2014 - 2 BvR 969/14 - margin no. 35; Child pornography investigations: Constitutional judges dismiss Edathy's complaint. In: Spiegel Online , August 29, 2014.
  25. ^ Main hearing in the criminal case against Sebastian Edathy. Press release from the District Court of Verden, November 18, 2014.
  26. ^ Great contradictions - 2nd committee of inquiry (Edathy). In: Bundestag.de , December 19, 2014.
  27. Mariam Lau : Edathy Trial: After all, half a confession. In: Zeit Online , March 2, 2015.
  28. Press release of the Verden Regional Court of March 3, 2015 Criminal proceedings against Sebastian Edathy discontinued against payment of a monetary deposit
  29. Julia Jüttner: The end of the Edathy process: Punished for life. In: Spiegel Online , March 2, 2015.
  30. On this question Werner Leitner : Criminal lawyer Leitner: "The presumption of innocence still applies to Mr. Edathy". In: Spiegel Online , March 6, 2015.
  31. Edathy does not want to leave the SPD voluntarily . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from March 29, 2015
  32. Nude photo affair: Edathy has to put SPD membership on hold for three years . Spiegel online from June 1, 2015
  33. ^ Decision of the SPD arbitration commission: Edathy announces his appointment . Spiegel online from June 2, 2015
  34. Child pornography affair: SPD top fails with Edathy expulsion. In: Die Zeit , February 12, 2016.