Markus Oertle: prosecutor becomes milieu lawyer
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Markus Oertle now works in the law firm of the dazzling “Milieu lawyer” Valentin Landmann.
Resa RaffiDeputy Editor-in-Chief SonntagsBlick
An invisible line runs through the country’s courtrooms. They separate two parties in the criminal process, whose interests could not be more different: here the public prosecutor’s office with their application against the accused, there the defense, who wants to get the best out of their clients.
Now a very prominent accuser has crossed that line. Markus Oertle (62) has headed Department I of the Zurich public prosecutor’s office for serious violent crimes for the past six years. He is the successor to the legendary crook hunter Ulrich Weder (71). Anyone who heads what is probably the most important area of the public prosecutor’s office in Zurich belongs to the first guard in the Swiss constitutional state. For more than three decades, Oertle was on the heels of murderers, sex offenders, thugs, fraudsters and charlatans on behalf of the general public. He started out as a district attorney in Horgen ZH.
His career as a criminal prosecutor ended in July. Oertle is now working for the other side – for the Zurich law firm Landmann.
The news hit legal and official circles like a bomb. Some colleagues rub their eyes in amazement, others shake their heads. And some wonder: Why?
It started with a labor dispute
SonntagsBlick visited the law firm of criminal defense attorney Valentin Landmann (72) in Zurich-Oberstrass. The “milieu lawyer”, as he is often called, is visibly proud of his newcomer. He likes to talk about this coup, especially after a few recent departures have become public. “Markus was one of the most intelligent and capable prosecutors I’ve written with,” enthuses Landmann about the man he repeatedly had to fight on behalf of his clients.
And that often happened. The two have known each other since Örtle’s early days. “We had to do with each other in x cases,” says Landmann. “Valentin was always easy to deal with and a brilliant lawyer,” says Oertle. He still remembers his first trial with his longtime adversary, back in 1992. It is about the allegation of rape against a client of Landmann. Won Hat – Farmer. His trademark is conciliation with the other side, he often advises clients to cooperate with the state. Which also earned him occasional criticism.
The origin of Markus Oertle’s spectacular maneuver lies in a labor dispute. Three years ago he had to undergo heart surgery. After the surgery he realized that he no longer had the same strength for the top job as before. He then asked his employer for a solution, such as a reduced workload and shared responsibility. But the superiors are less flexible than hoped; Early retirement at 62.
Then he realized: Retirement can wait. He wanted to use his experience somewhere.
Politically different camps
Despite their different professional careers, Oertle and Landmann seem as harmonious as two newly in love. They are also far apart politically. Landmann sits on the Zurich cantonal council for the SVP, Oertle is a member of the SP. What they have in common is the sympathy for the SP politician Daniel Jositsch (57). Oertle was school president at the same time, he on the left and Jositsch on the right bank of the lake. Landmann repeatedly ordered reports from the criminal law professor, such as the famous one about the Hells Angels in 2008, according to which the bike club is not a criminal organization. And he has just published a plea for Jositsch’s failed candidacy for the Federal Council in the “Weltwoche” (“In my opinion, he is the ideal person”).
Oertle is not employed by Landmann, but works as a freelance consultant and lawyer. But isn’t it strange to accompany someone through an interrogation and sit across from a former subordinate? What do the drug dealers, thugs and pimps think when their longtime adversary is suddenly sitting in their own defense attorney’s office? How does the judicial officer react when her former executive suddenly waves from the other side of the interrogation room?
Some dossiers are taboo
There is no such thing as a “ban on competition” between the public prosecutor’s office and law firms, emphasizes Oertle, when he changes sides everything is right. However, he makes it a point that he would never take on cases he was previously involved in. And a senior prosecutor puts his signature on paper in many cases. Landmann states that his new man will not be involved in dossiers that he was previously involved with in this capacity.
“I haven’t heard any negative reactions,” says Oertle about his conversion, “but I can’t rule out that someone isn’t happy with it.” There is only talk of one email circulating in the official offices, in which concerns were expressed.
None of this interests the two new office colleagues. Oertle is looking forward to the cornucopia of new tasks, “I’m also interested in economic crimes and medical criminal cases as well as representing injured parties”.
Landmann now has a partner at his side who knows the inner workings of a public prosecutor’s office like no other, who can also give tips on how to formulate a legal document or a pleading in such a way that the other side finds it particularly difficult.
Landmann’s newcomer can speak impromptu about the subtleties in the case law, the case-by-case differences between a murder and a manslaughter verdict. The invisible line in the courtroom seems irrelevant at such moments.