There are now two proceedings against a former top official in connection with the Ahr flood.
Mainz – The public prosecutor's office in Mainz is investigating the former Vice President of the Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD) because of the initial suspicion of an unsworn false statement.
This was announced by the prosecution and the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Justice on Thursday.
The "Trierische Volksfreund" had previously reported about it.
The investigations were the subject of the interior committee of the Mainz state parliament on Thursday.
The ex-deputy head of the ADD in Trier recently informed the German Press Agency about a parallel disciplinary procedure against her that she is being legally represented and is not commenting.
Because of the initial suspicion of unsworn false statements to the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the flood disaster in July 2021, AfD parliamentary group leader Michael Frisch had filed a criminal complaint against the former top official.
According to media reports in the committee, she testified as a witness that after the Ahr flood with at least 134 dead, she had been in the operations center in the river valley for eight days.
As the Ministry of the Interior explained in response to a parliamentary AfD request, it had only been four days.
According to its director Andrea Keller, the public prosecutor's office in Mainz asked the chairman of the committee for the minutes of the earlier interrogation of the ex-ADD deputy as a witness.
The outcome of the procedure depends “on the result of the investigation and the legal classification of this result”.
The presumption of innocence applies.
Disciplinary proceedings against the retired political official have been going on for weeks.
She is suspected of having faked an official reason during her service shortly after the Ahr flood in order to be able to get to the USA for a private trip that she had paid for herself.
Traveling there was largely prohibited at the time due to corona restrictions.
Two days after the flood on the night of July 14th/15th, 2021, the ADD took over the management of civil protection from the district of Ahrweiler.
The then Vice President was on vacation from July 31 to August 13, 2021, which had been planned and approved for the long term.
According to his authorities, ADD boss Thomas Linnertz had already approved this visit to the USA in spring 2021, i.e. before the flood.
He knew the travel destination, assumed it was a vacation and had no further travel details.
dpa
