The first day in the process of the World Cup scandal in Switzerland ended after only a few minutes. The judge adjourned the hearing to Wednesday. She sees no reason for the lack of German ex-officials. Ex-DFB boss Theo Zwanziger is outraged.
Bellinzona (dpa) - The first day of negotiations in the Swiss summer fairy tale procedure only lasted a few minutes and did not go according to plan for the accused former German football officials.
Judge Sylvia Frei adjourned the trial for dubious million payments in the course of the German World Cup candidacy in 2006 to the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona in the absence of the three German suspects on Wednesday. The second meeting, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was canceled.
The former DFB presidents Theo Zwanziger (74) and Wolfgang Niersbach (69) and the former general secretary Horst R. Schmidt (78) had canceled their participation due to health reasons. Judge Frei rated the absence as "excused". Before that, she had already rejected various applications by the defendants to stay the trial. The former general secretary of the FIFA World Football Association, Urs Linsi (70), appeared in court in his home country.
Twenties renewed his criticism of the Swiss judiciary. The judge's decision not to apologize for the lack of defendants in the courtroom "did not surprise him," said the 74-year-old from the German Press Agency. The "years of misjudgment of important issues" continued.
"I am not satisfied, on the contrary I am consternated because, for example, the court simply ignored various medical certificates. It gives the impression that the court is throwing rule of law principles overboard for a quick trial," said Schmidt's lawyer Nathan Landshut. Niersbach did not want to comment on request.
The former DFB officials and Linsi are accused of improper management. They are said to have knowingly incorrectly declared the payment of 6.7 million euros by the DFB to FIFA in 2005. The case against the former World Cup organizer, Franz Beckenbauer, as a key figure in the scandal, was severed last year because of its state of health. All of the accused dismiss all guilt.
Judge Frei opened the trial with a delay of around two hours. All requests, including a request from Niersbach to suspend the trial due to public exclusion, were immediately rejected. An application for bias by the prosecutors was also rejected.
The controversial transfer was used to repay a private loan from entrepreneur Robert Louis-Dreyfus to Beckenbauer in 2002. This money later ended up in an account of a company belonging to former FIFA Vice-President Mohamed bin Hammam, who has been banned for life, but is not accused in the current process is still to be heard as a witness. It is still unclear for what purpose bin Hammam, an influential elector at the World Cup award in 2000, received the money.
Twenties lawyer Beat Luginbühl explained why the accused did not appear in the morning in front of the courthouse. His client had to undergo eye surgery and could neither travel nor read enough. It is also about the corona virus: "The people would expose themselves to an intolerable, life-threatening risk. Nobody wants that, not even my client." Due to the spread of Sars-CoV-2, the process takes place in camera. Media representatives can follow the process via video transmission in an adjoining room.
Luginbühl said: "Proper procedure can mean that the process is stopped." The offended act - the transfer - becomes time-barred on April 27, 2020. If no judgment has been reached by then, the proceedings will be terminated.
Process plan of the Federal Criminal Court
Federal Criminal Court
German Football Association
DFB information on the summer fairy tale scandal