Munich (dpa / lby) - In the mask investigation committee of the Bavarian state parliament, the long-standing CSU member of the state parliament Alfred Sauter refused to testify for the third time - but fought verbal battles with the committee chairmen. Sauter was invited on Thursday to testify about another mask complex. However, he relied on his right not to provide any information on the matter.
Sauter objected to the use of the term refusal by committee chairman Winfried Bausback (CSU): he did not refuse to testify, but made use of his right not to testify on the matter, he said. Bausback replied that the term refusal to testify was not stigmatizing. But if Sauter causes "linguistic problems", then he states that Sauter is not prepared to comment.
The committee Vice Florian Siekmann (Greens) then referred to the recent decision of the Federal Court of Justice in favor of Sauters. However, he added that he was convinced that a member of parliament should meet higher standards than not committing an offense - but of course it was accepted that Sauter would not make a statement.
Sauter then said angrily: "What are you imagining?" When Gerd Mannes (AfD) wanted to know from Sauter why Sauter actually remained silent, Bausback dismissed Sauter from the meeting - nobody had to explain why he refused to testify.
The aim of the committee is in particular to clarify mask business by the state government in the corona pandemic, possible involvement of politicians and sometimes high commission payments to members of parliament. The Ministry of Health has repeatedly emphasized that the Ministry has never paid commissions to elected officials.
Sauter - like the former CSU member of the Bundestag Georg Nüßlein - received high commissions for brokering transactions with corona masks in 2020. However, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) finally decided in July that the allegation of bribery against the two was not fulfilled. According to the BGH, the members of parliament should have taken action themselves.
CSU General Secretary Martin Huber then told the "Augsburger Allgemeine": "The legal acquittal does not make up for the moral guilt." As a member of parliament, you should “not enrich yourself in a serious emergency situation like the Corona crisis”.
