Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – In the affair of passing on a letter from a lawyer, the top data protection officer Stefan Brink has resumed the proceedings against Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU). As part of the procedure, the Ministry of the Interior will be heard on the facts of the transfer of documents to third parties and the legal assessment of the process, Brinks spokesman for the German Press Agency said on Wednesday evening when asked. This is followed by the legally required assessment by the state data protection officer. The SWR had previously reported.
The case concerns a letter from the lawyer of a high-ranking police officer, which the deputy head of government passed on to a journalist. The official is being investigated for sexual harassment and has been suspended from work. In the letter, the lawyer for the police officer offered the top executive a personal interview with the accused officer. Strobl saw it as a “poisoned offer”. By forwarding the letter to a journalist, he wanted to ensure “maximum transparency” and prevent the other side from launching the letter and being accused of cheating.
Brink had already made it clear in May that Strobl had clearly violated the law by forwarding the letter. He came to the result in a “data protection supervisory law test procedure” that the opposition SPD had asked him to do. Brink opened a supervisory procedure in the matter. At the time, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann was irritated by the data protection officer’s actions because Brink had not even heard the minister.
Brink and the SPD parliamentary group disagreed. He submitted the statement “as part of our duty to advise the state parliament”, since the state has no right to a hearing, the data protection officer told the “Badisches Tagblatt” at the time. However, he had opened a supervisory procedure, and of course all those affected would be heard.
An investigation against Strobl, which had been initiated by the public prosecutor’s office in the meantime, was dropped last week against the payment of a fine of 15,000 euros. An investigative committee of the state parliament is also dealing with the case.
