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For these reasons, the Court has found that it must examine
Neumeister's continued detention on remand until his provisional
release on 16 September 1964.

8. What strikes one first when examining the circumstances
surrounding Neumeister's second detention is that, while his arrest on
12 July 1962 had been provoked by the recent statements of his
co-accused Rafael, the Applicant, who had already been the subject of
a long investigation, was not interrogated again during the fifteen
months which elapsed between his second arrest (12 July 1962) and the
close of the investigation (4 November 1963). On 21 January 1963, it
is true, he was confronted with Rafael, but this confrontation, which
was interrupted after a few minutes, was not recommenced, contrary to
what was to be inferred from the minutes.

Such a state of affairs called for particular attention on the part of
the judicial authorities when examining the applications which
Neumeister made to them with a view to obtaining his release pending
trial.

9. The reason invoked by the authorities to justify their rejection
of the applications for release was that mentioned in the arrest
warrant of 12 July 1962, namely the danger that, by absconding,
Neumeister would avoid appearing before the court that was to try him.

In the view of the judicial authorities, this danger resulted from the
anxiety which must have been caused to Neumeister by the statements
made by his co-accused Rafael during his interrogations in
January 1962 and his confrontations with Neumeister on 10 and
11 July 1962; these had, they argued, to such an extent aggravated the
case against the accused and increased both the severity of the
sentence to be expected in the event of his conviction and the amount
of loss for which he could be held responsible that they must have
given him a considerable temptation to abscond and thereby evade this
two-fold - civil and criminal - liability.

The first Austrian decisions found confirmation of this danger of
flight in the fact that Neumeister was said to have continued the
preparations for his trip to Finland after becoming aware of the
worsening of his position and after being informed by the
Investigating Judge that permission for the journey had been refused.

10. The Court finds it understandable that the Austrian judicial
authorities considered the danger of flight as having been much
increased in July 1962 by the greater gravity of the criminal and
civil penalties which Rafael's new statements must have caused
Neumeister to fear.

The danger of flight cannot, however, be evaluated solely on the basis
of such considerations. Other factors, especially those relating to
the character of the person involved, his morals, his home, his
occupation, his assets, his family ties and all kinds of links with
the country in which he is being prosecuted may either confirm the
existence of a danger of flight or make it appear so small that it
cannot justify detention pending trial.

It should also be borne in mind that the danger of flight necessarily
decreases as the time spent in detention passes by for the probability
that the length of detention on remand will be deducted from the
period of imprisonment which the person concerned may expect if
convicted, is likely to make the prospect seem less awesome to him and
reduce his temptation to flee.

11. In the present case, Neumeister's counter-arguments against the
reasons given by the Austrian judicial authorities in justification of
his provisional detention have been summarised above (statement of the
the facts, paras 13, 14, 16 and 18). The Applicant referred, both in
his appeals and also before the Commission, to various circumstances
relating to his settled position in Vienna, which were such as to
combat any temptation for him to flee. His explanations of the
alleged continuation of his preparations for his journey to Finland
are confirmed by a study of the documents on the file and were not
contradicted by the Investigating Judge in the course of his
examination by the Commission (statement of the facts, paras 11, 12
and 14).

The Investigating Judge also admitted before the Commission that he
personally did not believe that Neumeister intended to abscond in
order to avoid appearing at his trial (statement of the facts,
para. 11). Such a statement from a judge who, in the course of the
long investigation conducted since 1959, must have become well
acquainted with the Applicant is certainly not without importance.

12. The Court is of the opinion that in these circumstances the
danger that Neumeister would avoid appearing at the trial by
absconding was, in October 1962 in any event, no longer so great that
it was necessary to dismiss as quite ineffective the taking of the
guarantees which, under Article 5 (3) (art. 5-3) may condition a grant
of provisional release in order to reduce the risks which it entails.

However, this was precisely the attitude of the Austrian judicial
authorities when for the first time, on 26 October 1962, Neumeister
proposed a bank guarantee of 200,000 or, if necessary,
250,000 schillings (statement of the facts, para. 14), again when this
offer was repeated on 12 July 1963 (statement of the facts, para. 16)
and even when the offer of bail was increased by his lawyer
on 6 November 1963 to one million schillings (statement of the facts,
para. 18).

13. The Court is not in a position to state an opinion as to the
amount of security which could reasonably be demanded of Neumeister,
and it does not reject the notion that the first offers could have
been dismissed as insufficient. It notes however that the Austrian
courts based their calculations mainly on the amount of loss resulting
from the offences imputed to Neumeister which he might be called upon
to make good. The loss was such that, according to the decisions
given, the offer of a bank guarantee could not be considered
("indiskutabel", statement of the facts, paras. 14 and 16). This
refusal by the judicial authorities to take any account whatsoever of
the successive offers of bail made by Neumeister became less and less
justified the nearer the offers came to the sum which could reasonably
be considered sufficient to ensure his appearance at the trial.
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