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6. On 21 January 1960, Neumeister appeared for the first time as a
suspect ("Verdächtiger", in the Austrian sense of the word), before
the Investigating Judge. In the course of his interrogation, which
lasted for an hour and a quarter, Neumeister became aware of the
above-mentioned steps taken by the Public Prosecution; he protested
his innocence, a position from which, it would seem, he has never
since wavered.

7. At the request of the Vienna Public Prosecution
(22 February 1961), the Investigating Judge decided on
23 February 1961 to open a preliminary investigation concerning
Neumeister's activities and ordered that Neumeister be taken into
detention on remand (Untersuchungshaft).

In consequence Neumeister was, on the following day, placed in
detention on remand in connection with the case involving Rafael and
associates (24 a Vr 6101/59). At the same time he was notified of his
provisional release in a case involving customs frauds
(No. 6 b Vr 8622/60) in respect of which he had been detained for some
three weeks. This other case is not in issue before the European
Court of Human Rights; it ended with the acquittal of the eight
accused on 29 March 1963 before the Regional Criminal Court of Vienna,
this judgment being confirmed on 14 April 1964 by the Austrian Supreme
Court (Oberster Gerichtshof).

During his detention the applicant was interrogated as an accused
("Beschuldigter", in the Austrian sense of this word) on 27 February,
2 March, 18 to 21 April and 24 April 1961. From the sixty-seven pages
of minutes, it appears that the Investigating Judge informed him in
detail of the statements concerning him made by several co-accused,
including Franz Scherzer, Walter Vollmann (former director of the
Iteka branch at Salzburg), Leopold Brunner and Lothar Rafael. The
last named of these had fled abroad but had written a letter of more
than thirty pages to the Court in which he heavily implicated
Neumeister. The Applicant explained his conduct in detail; the
interrogation generally took place in the presence of an inspector of
taxes (Finanzoberrevisor), Mr. Besau.

8. On 12 May 1961, Neumeister was provisionally released on parole:
he gave the solemn undertaking (Gelöbnis) provided for by Section 191
of the Code of Criminal Procedure but was not required to deposit
security. The Public Prosecution unsuccessfully challenged this
decision before the Vienna Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht).

9. After his release, the Applicant resumed his professional
activities. In the course of the trial concerning the alleged customs
frauds (6 b Vr 8622/60) he had been obliged to sell the ITEKA company,
seemingly at an extremely low price - about 700,000 schillings payable
in forty-eight monthly instalments - but he established a small
transport company, the Scherzinger company, with three employees.

In July 1961 Neumeister visited Finland, with the authorisation of the
Investigating Judge, for a holiday with his wife and their three
children. At the beginning of February 1962 he made a trip to the
Saar for several days, again with the permission of this Judge. He
asserts that throughout the period, which lasted until his second
arrest (12 July 1962; para. 12 infra), he often visited the
Investigating Judge of his own free will.

10. Lothar Rafael was arrested at Paderborn (Federal Republic of
Germany) on 22 June 1961 and was extradited to Austria on
21 December 1961, the Minister of Justice of North-Rhine Westphalia
having acceded to the request of the Austrian authorities for Rafael's
extradition.

In January 1962, lengthy interrogations of Rafael were conducted by
the Vienna Economic Police (Wirtschaftspolizei), during which the
former levelled grave accusations against Neumeister.

11. Neumeister informed the Investigating Judge in the Spring of 1962
that he wished to visit Finland again to spend a holiday with his
family during the month of July. The Investigating Judge raised no
objections at that time. He is said later to have warned the
Applicant that he would probably be confronted with Rafael in June but
that it would in no way be necessary for him to give up his plans for
a holiday abroad.

On 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th July 1962, Neumeister was interrogated by the
Investigating Judge in the presence of the inspector of taxes,
Mr. Besau. On being informed of the statements relating to him made
by various witnesses and accused, in particular those made by Rafael
in January 1962, he strenuously contested them. Fifty pages of
minutes were noted on this occasion.

The confrontation between Neumeister and Rafael took place before the
Vienna Economic Police on 10 and 11 July 1962. It appears from the
twenty-two pages of minutes that Neumeister persisted in his denials.

On the morning of 12 July, the Investigating Judge informed Neumeister
that his departure for Finland, planned for 15 July, met with the
opposition of the Public Prosecution. When heard as a witness, on
7 July 1965, by a Sub-Commission of the European Commission of Human
Rights, he gave the following fuller particulars on this point:

"What I am going to say now is rather more difficult for me. My own
intuition convinced me that Mr. Neumeister would come back from his
trip to Finland. Mr. President, members of the Commission, you know
that a judge cannot let himself be ruled only by intuition; he must be
guided solely by the law. Since no treaty on judicial assistance or
extradition exists as such between Austria and Finland, the law
obliged me not to yield to my intuition that Neumeister would return.
I know that I said to Mr. Neumeister then: 'My feeling tells me that
you will come back; but I cannot personally give you permission
without the approval of the prosecuting authority'. This approval was
then refused."

The Applicant, for his part, alleged before the Sub-Commission that
the Investigating Judge had given him permission to go to Finland
despite the wish of the Public Prosecution that he should not.

12. Be this as it may, on the same day, 12 July 1961, at the request
of the Public Prosecution, the Investigating Judge ordered
Neumeister's arrest.

The warrant (Haftbefehl) indicated first that Neumeister was suspected
of having committed, between 1952 and 1957 and in consort with
Lothar Rafael and other suspects, a series of fraudulent transactions
which had caused the State a loss of some ten million schillings. It
added that Neumeister, being fully aware of the charges assembled
against him since his release (12 May 1961), must anticipate a heavy
punishment; that his former employee, Walter Vollmann, for whom the
results of the investigation had been less heavily incriminating, had
nevertheless evaded prosecution by absconding; that the recent
interrogations of the Applicant and his confrontation with Rafael had
shown to him beyond any doubt that he would now be obliged to
relinquish his attitude of total denial; that he intended to take his
holidays abroad and that the withdrawal of his passport would not have
offered an adequate safeguard, the possession of this document no
longer being necessary for the crossing of certain frontiers.

From these various circumstances the warrant deduced that there
existed, in the case, a danger of flight (Fluchtgefahr), within the
meaning of Section 175 (1) (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
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