Wolfgang Brandstetter

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Wolfgang Brandstetter in the gown of the VfGH judge (2018)

Wolfgang Brandstetter (born October 7, 1957 in Haag ) is an Austrian legal scholar and former politician. For the ÖVP , he was Justice Minister of the Austrian Federal Government from 2013 to 2017 and was Vice Chancellor for a short time in 2017. At the suggestion of the ÖVP-FPÖ federal government , he was a judge at the Constitutional Court from 2018 to 2021 .

At the Vienna University of Economics and Business , Wolfgang Brandstetter has been a university professor for criminal law and criminal procedure law since 2007 .

Life

Brandstetter grew up in Eggenburg and attended the Horn Federal High School , where he also passed his Matura. He studied law as well as the English and Russian languages at the University of Vienna . After receiving his doctorate in 1980, he worked as an assistant at the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Vienna. In 1991 Brandstetter received his habilitation at the Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna and then taught at the universities in Graz , Brno and Krakow .

In 1997 Brandstetter received an offer to transfer to the University of Linz; In 1998 Brandstetter succeeded Winfried Platzgummer as full professor of criminal law at the University of Vienna . In 2007, he became director of the Institute for Austrian and European White Collar Criminal Law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business . Brandstetter acted as defense attorney for the technical director of the Gletscherbahnen Kaprun , for Rudolf Fischer in the Telekom affair , for Tilo Berlin and Rakhat Aliyev . The latter even had his residence at times in Brandstetter's private house. In addition, Brandstetter appeared as a confidante of Wolfgang Kulterer in the investigation committee for Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank . Brandstetter was also the defender of Chancellor Werner Faymann in the investigation into the advertisement affair.

In 2013 Brandstetter, who was barely noticed outside of legal circles and who was described in the press as an "anti-corruption expert", was sent by the ÖVP to the Faymann II cabinet as a non-party Minister of Justice . On May 17, 2017, the Minister of Justice was sworn in as the successor to Reinhold Mitterlehner as Vice Chancellor in the Kern cabinet . After the end of the legislative period as a result of the 2017 National Council election , Wolfgang Brandstetter left the government and no longer held a political mandate. On February 21, 2018, he was proposed by the new federal government as a member of the Constitutional Court. After the appointment by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen on February 22, Brandstetter was sworn in as constitutional judge by VfGH President Brigitte Bierlein on February 27, 2018 .

In March 2018 he was appointed Special Advisor to the European Commission ; At the initiative of Justice Commissioner Vera Jourová , he is to advise the Commission on issues such as the quality of justice systems in Europe, the rule of law and de-radicalization.

Alleged abuse of office

Investigators from the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office appeared on February 25, 2021 in the course of the investigation against Brandstetter at the Constitutional Court (VfGH). A notebook he was using was secured. An electronic device was also seized from Christian Pilnacek , the suspended section head for criminal law in the Ministry of Justice. For the time being, the public prosecutor's office did not disclose the legal case being investigated against them. Brandstetter is suspected of having passed on information about an investigation against the former politician Christoph Chorherr ( Greens ) to the high-rise investor Michael Tojner . The choir has been investigated since 2017. Canon and Brandstetter deny all corruption allegations. Subsequently, the first reports that an “electronic device” had been handed over to the Constitutional Court (VfGH) were corrected. He volunteered this notebook in his office. According to the press , Brandstetter and Pilnacek are being investigated for violating official secrecy. According to the standard, there is a connection to the cause of the city expansion fund (high-rise project on Vienna's Heumarkt).

According to the business magazine Trend, the investigations by the public prosecutor against Brandstetter are based on a chance find during the third house search at Michael Tojner's on February 10, 2021. Michael Tojner is listed as a suspect in two proceedings. Irregularities had occurred in the assessment of housing cooperatives in Burgenland (file number: 63 St1 / 19x) and with regard to the controversial Vienna Heumarkt project (file number: 63 St13 / 17). In both proceedings, Tojner denies the allegations made against him. Michael Tojner and Wolfgang Brandstetter already know each other from their school days in Haag, Lower Austria, and Brandstetter is said to have advised them on legal issues on several occasions. Brandstetter is also mandated in two companies of the Tojner Group.

Christoph Grabenwarter , President of the Constitutional Court (VfGH), announced in writing on the afternoon of February 26th that Brandstetter wanted to remain a judge at the Constitutional Court despite the ongoing investigations by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office. “His status as a suspect in an ongoing, open procedure should not be interpreted as behavior that would contradict the respect and trust that his office requires.” Grabenwarter himself brought Brandstetter's mobile phone to the Vienna public prosecutor as part of a request for administrative assistance.

At the beginning of June 2021, chat logs of conversations between Brandstetter and Pilnacek became known. They came from Pilnacek's mobile phone, which was seized by the investigative authorities for evaluation, and were part of the data transmitted to the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the alleged marketability of the turquoise-blue federal government ( Ibiza committee of inquiry ). The content included, among other things, disparaging remarks about the Constitutional Court and female judges serving there. On June 3, Brandstetter initially announced his voluntary resignation as constitutional judge, effective June 30, 2021, “in order to keep the Constitutional Court out of the current political discussions”. On June 7th, however, he announced his resignation with immediate effect and left the Constitutional Court on the same day as a constitutional judge.

Private

Brandstetter, who lives in Eggenburg, is married and has three children. He is a member of the Catholic student union KaV Norica Vienna .

Brandstetter was chairman of the Nostalgiewelt Eggenburg association until 2015. In 2018 he succeeded Hans Peter Blechinger as President of the Filmarchiv Austria .

Publications

literature

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Brandstetter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d The calm one in the background , Kurier, December 12, 2013
  2. ^ Brandstetter's profile on the WU website
  3. Winfried Platzgummer, o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. iur. . Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  4. Kaprun Trial: Unfortunate Circumstances. In: derStandard.at . January 22, 2004, accessed March 17, 2021 .
  5. ^ The new federal government: Sophie Karmasin becomes Minister of Family Affairs , Der Standard, December 12, 2013
  6. ^ WG with Aliyev ( Memento of December 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), date, December 13, 2013. See also the journal profil No. 26 of June 23, 2014, p. 19 ff.
  7. Communiqué of the committee of inquiry regarding "Financial Market Authority, BAWAG, Hypo Alpe-Adria and other financial service providers" (3 / GO XXIII. GP)
  8. ^ A successful defense attorney becomes Minister of Justice ( Memento from December 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Kleine Zeitung, December 13, 2013
  9. Defense Books , Der Standard, December 9, 2013
  10. a b Brandstetter: Spindelegger's university colleague becomes a minister , Die Presse, December 12, 2013, accessed on May 17, 2017.
  11. Items with a short expiry date. ORF, May 17, 2017, accessed on the same day.
  12. Bierlein becomes VfGH President, Brandstetter moves up. In: diePresse.com . February 21, 2018, accessed February 21, 2018 .
  13. ^ VfGH: Brandstetter sworn in by Bierlein as a judge. In: diePresse.com . February 27, 2018, accessed March 1, 2018 .
  14. ^ Courier: Brandstetter received a call from Brussels . Article dated March 17, 2018, accessed March 17, 2018.
  15. Electronic devices secured at Brandstetter and Pilnacek , website: orf.at from February 25, 2021.
  16. Vienna at Brandstetter and Pilnacek , orf.at of February 25, 2021.
  17. Pilnacek provisionally suspended , website: orf.at of February 26, 2021.
  18. Angelika Kramer: Ex-Justice Minister Wolfgang Brandstetter in the sights of the public prosecutors , website: trend.at from February 24, 2021.
  19. Despite investigations - Brandstetter remains constitutional judge , website: orf.at of February 26, 2021.
  20. VfGH provided public prosecutors with administrative assistance , website: orf.at of February 27, 2021.
  21. Posts, fouls and constitutional judges as garbage women in Pilnacek's chats. Retrieved June 3, 2021 (Austrian German).
  22. ORF at / Agencies red: Whirling around chats: Brandstetter withdraws from VfGH. June 3, 2021, accessed June 3, 2021 .
  23. VfGH: Brandstetter resigns "with immediate effect". In: ORF.at . June 7, 2021, accessed June 8, 2021 .
  24. New chairman for the nostalgia world. May 19, 2015, accessed February 24, 2021 .
  25. orf.at. Brandstetter new President of the Film Archive . Article dated February 19, 2018, accessed February 19, 2018.