The higher regional court (OLG) Munich has exonerated the former member of the Bundestag Georg Nüßlein and the member of the state parliament Alfred Sauter of the central allegations in the CSU mask affair.
Their behavior does not meet the criteria of bribery or the corruptibility of mandate holders, announced the OLG in resolutions announced on Thursday.
With these, the court upheld complaints from Nüßlein, Sauter and a co-accused entrepreneur on essential points.
Nüßlein and Sauter were involved in mask deals, and the public prosecutor's office started investigations against the two CSU politicians in this context. On February 3, Nüßlein was raided, and he was arrested for 660,000 euros. Sauter was raided on March 11, and one day later, 1.243 million euros were arrested. The two politicians are said to have collected the money for their mediation in mask shops.
The OLG overturned both arrest orders and also declared the raid on Sauter to be illegal, and an arrest order against the co-accused entrepreneur was also overturned.
The court justified the fact that there was no corruption by stating that the relevant allegation presupposed that an MP would receive or be promised an advantage in return for an act in the performance of his mandate.
This was not the case here.
The court stated that "according to the clear will of the legislature", a mandate holder would not make himself liable to prosecution by accepting unjustified pecuniary advantages if he - as in this case - only uses the authority of his mandate or his contacts to make decisions by extra-parliamentary bodies how to influence authorities and ministries.
This clear will of the legislature is the basis of the decisions on the successful complaints from Nüßlein and Sauter, it said.
It is still unclear whether there will be charges against the two politicians and thus a criminal trial.