The public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt is investigating the accusation of accepting an advantage against Peter Feldmann.

Paragraph 331 of the Criminal Code states: "An official, a European official or a person with special obligations for the public service who demands, allows himself to be promised or accepts an advantage for himself or a third party for the performance of his duties shall be punished with imprisonment for up to three years or punished with a fine." The core of the proceedings is the question of whether the former AWO employee and Feldmann, who was already in the office of the mayor at the time of the alleged events, asserted his influence,

Anna Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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In 2020, the public prosecutor had denied an initial suspicion.

In March 2021 it became known that an investigation had been initiated.

This was done on the basis of new and additional witness statements and evaluated documents, it said.

According to the findings, the agreements on Zübeyde Feldmann's employment were made "in the presence and under the influence" of Feldmann.

Apparently, after about a year of investigations, the public prosecutor's office has collected so much incriminating evidence that, in their eyes, it is sufficient for a sufficient suspicion of a crime.

Without that there is no indictment.

The fact that the public prosecutor's office has now reportedly filed charges means that they are convinced that Feldmann will be convicted.

How the authority specifically wants to prove that Feldmann demanded, promised or accepted “an advantage for himself or a third party for the performance of his duties” is currently just as open as the question of what exactly this advantage should have consisted of.

Alone in the position, salary and company car of his future wife?

And what was the "performance of service" for which Feldmann is said to have received the benefit?

Is the accusation that in return he used

The competent court will have to decide how to proceed in due course.

It must examine the charges and decide whether to open the main trial in the light of the evidence.

The Frankfurt Regional Court, before which a possible trial would take place, did not want to comment on Tuesday.

What can now follow for the mayor

Since the public prosecutor's office began investigations, the disciplinary proceedings that Peter Feldmann applied for against himself at the Hessian Ministry of the Interior in the course of the AWO scandal in March 2020 have been suspended.

The ministry is the responsible supervisory authority and will check after the procedure has been completed whether further sanctions are appropriate from a disciplinary point of view or not.

Civil service law provides for a catalog of possible sanctions, ranging from warning talks to reprimands to dismissal.

The threshold for the latter is "very high," says a spokesman, and it is based on criminal law, i.e. about the amount of a prison sentence imposed.

However, the spokesman also points out that, as in any trial, the presumption of innocence applies until a conviction is reached.

In the case of serious crimes, the law provides for a loss of civil servant rights even without disciplinary proceedings: If a civil servant is sentenced to imprisonment for at least one year for an intentional act, the civil servant's relationship ends when the judgment becomes final.

This is what it says in paragraph 24 of the civil servant status law, which regulates the position of civil servants in the federal states and municipalities.

The Hessian Municipal Code also provides options for disciplinary proceedings and early dismissal.

The city council can apply for the former with the supervisory authority, and the CDU parliamentary group leader in the Römer, Nils Kößler, has already brought the latter into play: an application for the early dismissal of the mayor.

This can only be done with the support of at least half of the city councillors.

A two-thirds majority is then required for the decision.

The municipal code also states: "The dismissal must be discussed and voted on twice."

It is also regulated there that a mayor can be voted out of office early by the citizens if a majority of at least 30 percent of those entitled to vote is in favor.

Here, too, there are hurdles for the application and decision by the city councillors.

Once the decision has been taken, the mayor can, in writing, waive a decision on his deselection by the citizens.

He is then eliminated on the day of his declaration.