The affair about lucrative mask shops ends lightly for the long-standing CSU MPs Alfred Sauter and Georg Nüßlein. The Federal Court of Justice sees the accusation of corruption as unfulfilled. This allows them to keep the very high commissions.
The Bavarian politicians Alfred Sauter and Georg Nüßlein are allowed to keep the millions in commission for the procurement of protective masks at the beginning of the corona pandemic. The Federal Court of Justice does not see the allegation of bribery against her in the mask affair. Complaints by the Munich public prosecutor's office against three decisions by criminal divisions of the Munich Higher Regional Court had been rejected, the court in Karlsruhe announced. A further challenge to the decision is now no longer permissible.
In the first phase of the corona pandemic, the long-standing CSU MPs Alfred Sauter and Georg Nüßlein mediated the purchase of masks by the federal government and the Bavarian state government - and received lavish commissions for this. According to the BGH, a GmbH whose managing director is Nüßlein received 660,000 euros. A company over which Sauter has a significant influence even received more than 1.2 million euros. The Higher Regional Court of Munich had also ruled before the Federal Court of Justice that this did not constitute bribery. According to the BGH, the members of parliament should have taken action themselves. "The mere agreement between those involved that the mandate holder refers to his status in extra-parliamentary activities in order to influence official decisions in the interests of a private entrepreneur does not fulfill this characteristic," the BGH ruled.
Nüßlein, who once sat in the Bundestag for the CSU, resigned from the CSU as a result of the affair, and Sauter, a member of the state parliament, left the parliamentary group. Sauter also relinquished all party offices, in particular his seats on the CSU board and presidium as well as the CSU district chairmanship in Günzburg. The arrest warrant against the entrepreneur, whom you helped sell the masks to the Bavarian Ministry of Health, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Health for more than 60 million euros, has also been lifted.
According to the will of the legislature, only the acceptance of consideration for actions "in the performance of the mandate" is punishable by politicians, i.e. for votes in parliament, in committees or in the parliamentary group, the judges of the 3rd criminal senate found. Paragraph 108e of the Criminal Code does not cover the fact that MPs exercise their influence outside of political work. "If the legislature should recognize a criminal liability gap, it is up to them to decide whether they want to leave it in place or close it with a new regulation," said the BGH. Otherwise the hands of the courts are tied.
