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Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer
Photo: Michael Kappeler / DPA
The opposition accuses Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer of not having released all documents in the toll affair.
At first she got support from a judgment of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) - but now it turns out differently.
Because the judges in Karlsruhe revised a decision from January that allowed access to log files in the CSU politician's office e-mail accounts (read more here).
The Federal Court of Justice overturned the ruling that files can generally be released - because they are no longer available.
This emerges from a letter from the BGH investigating judge to the Bundestag investigative committee, available to the German Press Agency.
The request for evidence by MPs from the Greens, the Left and the FDP is thus aimed at "unreachable evidence".
The opposition factions had sued because the committee majority had rejected a request for evidence.
The opposition suspects that Scheuer did not present relevant communication on the failed car toll via MP accounts.
Conclusions can be drawn from the log files about the type, frequency, duration and participants of e-mail traffic.
The letter from the BGH investigating judge refers to a letter from Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble from February.
The chairman of the committee of inquiry, Udo Schiefner (SPD), said in February that Schäuble had announced that the log files of the Bundestag's email system were only backed up for three months by resolution of the Council of Elders on December 17, 2015.
The handover of the so-called log files to Scheuer's parliamentary mail account, which was demanded by the opposition parties, could therefore not be met at all.
Schiefner had viewed the request for publication critically.
The German model for a car toll failed in the summer of 2019 before the European Court of Justice.
The opposition accuses Scheuer, among other things, of having concluded contracts before there was legal certainty.
The planned operators are demanding 560 million euros in damages after the federal government terminated the contracts immediately after the judgment.
Scheuer rejects the allegations.
as / dpa