Austria: Cobra letter puts Chancellor Nehammer in distress
Berlin
After Karl Nehammer’s bodyguard was involved in an alcohol-related accident, the public prosecutor’s office is investigating. An anonymous letter raises explosive allegations.
On a Sunday in March, bodyguards of the Austrian Chancellor caused Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) had a car accident with body damage on the way home from work. The driver was found to be 1.2 per mille. According to an anonymous letter, the drink took place in the chancellor’s house. But that’s not all.
Let’s start with: Chancellor Karl Nehammer calls all the allegations made “untruths” and “blatant lies”. But whatever may be the matter with the affair about an alcoholic evening at the chancellor’s house and his subsequent drive home bodyguard in the upper alcohol range: It is always stubborn, the affair that has accompanied the chancellor for weeks like a block and leg.
A parliamentary question SPÖ was already in the matter, now the public prosecutor is investigating. It is about the suspicion of abuse of office. What is actually known about the accident is that it took place and the driver was drunk. However, the accident was followed by a anonymous writingpublished by the opposition SPÖ.
Nehammer’s wife is said to have organized the drink
In the letter, a whole series of other allegations are made against the Nehammer family. Behind the letter is said to be an unnamed official of the Police special unit “Cobra” put. The Cobra is responsible for the personal protection of Austrian politicians.
Insiders consider the letter to be probably authentic. And apparently die too Public prosecutor. Because the investigations that have now begun are quickly based exclusively on the allegations made in the letter.
So it says there: The Nehammer family would be bodyguards for messenger services as well as for childcare use and maintain unfair personal contacts with the officials. The accident happened after a drink with Katharina Nehammer, the Chancellor’s wife. In addition, the claim is made that the chancellor tried to close the matter cover up.
Nehammer: Wife has often been criticized
Katharina Nehammer confirmed that there had been a drink. She also confirmed that one of the officers had a relationship have a good friend. On that evening they toasted a birthday. Apparently, the officers continued to drink afterwards.
You have to know one thing: Catherine Nehammer appears increasingly as the chancellor’s strategist. Malicious tongues are already calling her a “shadow chancellor”. She is best networked in the ruling ÖVP. Her public presence has two sides.
For example, it caused astonishment and criticism that her husband business trips accompanied, because purely in terms of protocol, couple trips are a matter for presidents. On the other hand, Karl Nehammer has always reacted very sensitively when his family was dragged into the public domain. And so this time too.
Nehammer is visibly upset about the anonymous letter. Because in the brief details of the safety precautions are mentioned about the chancellor’s family, it is a threat to the security of his family. Nehammer vehemently denied the accusation that he tried to sweep the affair under the carpet.
Nehammer: Did the officials manipulate working hours?
However, the investigations into the matter are now revolving around this suspicion. Specifically, it is about the allegation that the service time records of the drunk crash officials were manipulated. Specifically, the chief of the special unit Cobra is accused of Bernhard Treibenreif. The investigation is also directed against him.
The allegation that Triebenreif instructed officers to record the accident in such a way that it outside of working hours happened. In the anonymous letter, this accusation is embellished in great detail.
Triebenreif suggested changing the working hours of the officials afterwards: “So it was agreed that end of service to be brought forward on the said day. Thus, it should be shown that the accident in the alleged private time the officials would have happened,” says the unknown author.
Triebenreif himself rejected all allegations: the allegations will be checked carefully. But he could already say that the veracity “is very, very low” and “that we will report all this”.
Nehammer has not yet been the target of investigations
Against dying Nehammers is not determined according to the current status. How delicate the matter is, however, is made clear by the way the authorities dealt with the matter.
First was the prosecutor Wiener Neustadt active. The Cobra is located in Wiener Neustadt south of Vienna. but then the preliminary investigation became a die Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office forwarded – and delegated the case to the public prosecutor’s office in Korneuburg north of Vienna. So no one should really feel like it.
Officials, on the other hand, emphasize that it is probably normal for a case to be made available if there is a possibility that a local investigative authority can be caught. and bias is of course an issue in criminal investigations against the head of a special police unit.
In addition to the criminal investigations, the matter has already resulted in internal investigations: In Ministry of the Interior an internal review was initiated. Because of the investigations by the judicial authorities, however, no more can be said about this, it said.
This article first appeared on waz.de
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