The public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart is now investigating against the Baden-Württemberg Minister of the Interior, Thomas Strobl (CDU), not only because of the betrayal of official secrets from the disciplinary proceedings, but also because of frustrating criminal prosecution in office.

According to Strobl, he wanted to clarify the alleged sex affair of his state police inspector Andreas R. as transparently as possible.

Therefore, at the end of 2021, he forwarded a lawyer's letter to a journalist, who quoted it verbatim in an article.

The public prosecutor's office, however, had not given Strobl, as the highest authority head, any authorization to investigate in his house.

Ruediger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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The CDU politician takes the view that the lawyer's letter is not an official secret, that the letter was not part of the case file or the public prosecutor's investigation file.

However, this raises the question of why Strobl did not pass on the letter.

Due to the refusal of authorization, the FDP parliamentary group filed a criminal complaint for frustration in office, which inevitably leads to the opening of preliminary proceedings.

The publication of documents from criminal, fine and disciplinary proceedings is punishable under Section 353d.

Investigation and disciplinary proceedings against Andreas R., who was suspended from work, for sexual harassment have been ongoing since November 2021.

He is said to have harassed a chief inspector in a video call with suggestive statements about sexual practices.

An interview would not have been a legal problem

Politically, Strobl's behavior was clumsy, how his behavior is to be evaluated legally depends on whether the public prosecutor's office pursues the proceedings up to the point of indictment or discontinues them.

By passing on the lawyer's letter from the proceedings, Strobl wanted to inform the public about what he saw as a borderline offer to settle the matter with a "personal conversation" and to discontinue the disciplinary proceedings.

Politically, it would have been just as effective and also legally unproblematic if Strobl had reported on this offer in an interview about the sex affair and had evaluated it accordingly.

However, because the journalist quoted verbatim from the lawyer's letter, the investigations are also aimed at Strobl.

SPD, FDP and AfD call for his resignation;

the FDP is also working on a motion to set up a committee of inquiry, for which it needs the approval of the SPD.

The FDP parliamentary group leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke made it clear again on Wednesday that she wanted to use the investigative committee regardless of the outcome of the investigation: "According to everything we hear, we have material for three investigative committees." Strobl's decision, the public prosecutor's office no authorization For investigations in his ministry, Rülke called it a "unique event" reminiscent of "banana republics".

"It is becoming clear that Mr. Kretschmann is more concerned about the coalition peace with the CDU than the rule of law.

Mr. Kretschmann talks about Hannah Arendt, but has Niccolò Machiavelli in his heart,” said Rülke.

What sounds politically so catchy is legally complicated: The public prosecutor's office accuses Strobl of having incited journalists to publish official secrets under paragraph 353d, while paragraph 353b, which criminalises the violation of official secrets, she casually uses to justify their case approach, because the standard presupposes the "endangerment of essential public interests".

Strobl claims the publication of the attorney's letter was in the public interest.

It is also questionable whether an indictment can be based on paragraph 353d, because it will be difficult to prove Strobl's intentional actions, after all he will not have asked the journalist to quote verbatim from the lawyer's letter.

The new criminal procedure is also complicated: According to the criminal law, the highest authority head can decide according to 353b whether he allows investigations against subordinates in his house or not.

It is now unclear how this power will behave when the agency chief is involved in the case himself.

“The minister can decide with regard to the state police inspector whether the investigations are permissible or not.

That's an interesting question that needs to be clarified," said Tübingen criminal law expert Jörg Eisele.

In any case, Strobl's actions have caused great political damage: the interior minister is deputy prime minister, the architect of the green-black coalition and, for Kretschmann, the most important confidant in the CDU.

His resignation would shake the government.

In addition, the personnel decisions for the state police leadership, which was only installed a few years ago, go back to Strobl: He made Stefanie Hinz state police chief and Andreas R. state police inspector.