Facts
The German Federal Ministry of Justice requested the Federal Office of Police to approve the use of documents transmitted by the Swiss legal assistance authorities for a criminal investigation also in the proceedings of the 1st investigative committee of the 14th electoral period of the German Bundestag. The investigative committee is to clarify to what extent donations, commissions, other financial benefits or advantages have flowed directly or indirectly to members and officials of the former federal governments and their subordinate authorities. The Federal Office of Police granted the request, whereupon the appellant X. challenged the ruling.
The criminal investigation for which legal assistance had been approved concerned commission payments by Airbus-Industrie G.I.E. to the account of a domiciliary company controlled by the appellant in connection with the delivery of aircraft to a Canadian airline. The German law enforcement authorities subsumed the appellant's behavior under tax offense provisions.
Considerations
The Federal Court had to decide whether secondary legal assistance for the proceedings before an investigative committee of the German Bundestag is admissible. It found that legal assistance had been provided for a criminal proceeding and that secondary legal assistance for the proceedings before the investigative committee is admissible under analogous conditions as secondary legal assistance for civil and administrative proceedings.
The court stated that secondary legal assistance for the proceedings before an investigative committee of the German Bundestag is not inadmissible per se, but that the question of whether secondary legal assistance should be allowed must be decided in the affirmative. It would be contradictory to provide legal assistance for the conviction of an offender, but at the same time deny the requesting state the right to rely on the results of the legal assistance to determine the political consequences of the offenses.
The court decided that secondary legal…