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The latter then lodged with the Judge's Chamber of the Regional
Criminal Court of Vienna, on 5 August 1963, an appeal in which he
restated many of the arguments summarised above to which he added
others, in particular the following:

- considering the size and complexity of the case, the investigation
and the subsequent proceedings would seem to be of considerable length
with the consequence that the length of the detention on remand,
already greater than fourteen months, was in danger of exceeding that
of the possible sentence, if remedial measures were not speedily
taken;

- the Investigating Judge had failed to answer several of Neumeister's
arguments and to specify the documents which seemed to him to support
Rafael's statements, which were in any case most likely to be
withdrawn sooner or later;

- the same judge had been in error in minimising the importance of the
reduction of the loss attributed to Neumeister, a reduction which
might very well continue in the future;

- he had not based his decision on facts, but merely on presumptions
concerning the effects of Rafael's assertions on Neumeister's state of
mind (Seelenzustand).

Neumeister further emphasised:

- that he was prepared to deposit with the court his identity papers
and his passport;

- that he had no means whatsoever of supporting his family abroad;

- that in any case flight would be senseless for a man of his age, all
the more so since, in the case of his being extradited, he ran the
risk of not benefiting from the period of his detention on remand
being calculated as part of his possible sentence (allusion to
Section 55 (a) in fine of the Criminal Code).

The Judges' Chamber dismissed the appeal on 8 August 1963. Referring
to the decision which was being attacked and to those which had
preceded it, in substance it observed:

- that Rafael's statements were confirmed by a number of factors
(originals of letters, accountable receipts, statements of account,
witnesses' testimony, etc.);

- that the confrontation between Rafael and Neumeister in July 1962
had considerably worsened the latter's position and that the
Investigating Judge was correct in attaching importance to the effects
which it could not fail to have upon the morale of the Applicant;

- that, in these circumstances, the possible supplying of guarantees
could not be considered (indiskutabel ist) and could in no way
eliminate the danger of flight.

On 20 August 1963, Neumeister lodged an appeal against this decision
with the Vienna Court of Appeal. His complaints were substantially
the same as those which he had formulated on 5 August 1963. He also
charged the Judges' Chamber with not having specified the contents of
the documents supposed to corroborate Rafael's accusations, with
having ignored the question of whether he, Neumeister, was aware of
these documents, and with having overlooked the fact that more than
six months had passed since the last decision of the Court of Appeal
(19 February 1963). He also pointed out that he could easily have
absconded, had he so wished, in the interval between his confrontation
with Rafael and his arrest.

The Court of Appeal was not called upon to decide the question,
however: Neumeister withdrew his appeal on 11 September 1963 without
giving any reasons for so doing.

17. On 16 September 1963, Neumeister's elder daughter filed with the
Ministry of Justice a petition which sought her father's release; she
offered security of one million schillings.

The Vienna Economic Police addressed to the Regional Criminal Court,
on 13 November 1963, a confidential report from which it appeared that
Maria Neumeister had unsuccessfully sought to obtain part of that sum
from a former client of the Iteka and Scherzinger firms.

18. Some days earlier - on 6 November 1963, two days after the
closing of the preliminary investigation (paragraphs 19 and 20 infra) -
Dr. Michael Stern, attorney, had made, on Neumeister's behalf, a
fourth request for provisional release. In it, he briefly repeated
the arguments developed in the preceding requests, emphasised that the
period during which the Applicant had been held on remand was already
almost twenty months, and suggested a bank guarantee of
one million schillings.

In the course of the proceedings before the Commission, Neumeister
stated that this last offer was made against his wishes as he was not,
at that time, in a position to raise a guarantee for such a large sum.
By a letter of 14 April 1964, Dr. Stern confirmed that in this matter
he had acted on his own initiative. Before the Commission, the
Government's representatives observed that the offer was binding on
Neumeister and that the competent courts had no reason to believe that
it did not express Neumeister's own wishes.

The Investigating Judge rejected the request on 5 December 1963.
Referring to the decisions of 31 July 1962, 10 September 1962,
27 December 1962, 19 February 1963 and 8 August 1963, he held that the
Applicant had failed to bring forward any facts or arguments which
could justify his release.

Neumeister attacked this decision on 13 December 1963. He once more
denied that any danger of flight existed; in his view the Regional
Criminal Court of Vienna and the Vienna Court of Appeal had never
evaluated correctly the facts which were relevant to this point, had
based themselves on vague presumptions rather than solid proof and had
mistakenly attached decisive importance to the enormous loss allegedly
caused to the State. He complained in particular that the Regional
Criminal Court had failed, in its decision of 5 December, to take into
account the length of the detention on remand which he had already
undergone. In conclusion, the appeal repeated the offer of a bank
guarantee of one million schillings.

The Judges' Chamber of the Regional Criminal Court of Vienna allowed
the appeal on 8 January 1964. It recognised that the Applicant's
arguments carried a certain weight: recalling that Neumeister faced a
sentence of five to ten years' severe imprisonment, it observed that
it was uncertain as to whether he would benefit from the law providing
for cases involving extenuating circumstances (ausserordentliches
Milderungsrecht, Section 265 (a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure)
but that the length of detention on remand would, in all probability,
be deducted from the sentence in the event of a conviction
(Section 55 (a) of the Criminal Code) and that the inducement to flee
was thereby considerably lessened (wesentlich verringert). However it
considered that a guarantee of one million schillings was not
sufficient to eliminate the danger of flight. On this point it
emphasised that Section 192 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
stipulates that the amount of bail depends not only on the
circumstances of the detainee and on the financial situation of the
person providing the security, but also on the consequences of the
offence. For these reasons, the Judges' Chamber ordered Neumeister's
provisional release against security of two million schillings (either
in cash or in the form of a bank guarantee) and the voluntary deposit
(freiwillige Hinterlegung) of his passport with the Court.

On 21 January 1964, Dr. Stern lodged, on behalf of Neumeister, an
appeal designed to reduce the amount of security stipulated to one
million schillings. The substance of his argument was that under
Section 192 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the consequences of an
offence should be taken into consideration only after due allowance
had been made for the circumstances of the detainee and the financial
situation of the guarantor. From this he concluded that in no case
should the courts demand a guarantee in excess of the means of the
Applicant (Gesuchssteller), with the result that they might, if they
so wished, prevent provisional release in a case where the loss was
substantial.

The decision in dispute was partially altered by that of
4 February 1964. After deciding that the appeal concerned solely the
amount of the security required, the Vienna Court of Appeal came to
the same conclusion as the Judges' Chamber, to wit that a sum of one
million schillings was too small, regard being had to the loss
entailed by the acts in respect of which Neumeister was accused. It
added that the Applicant most probably possessed far greater assets
than the amount offered as bail, thanks to the profit he had made from
these same acts. It also observed that he had not specifically
claimed that his means would be exhausted by his having to give bail
of one million schillings. The Court stated however that it did not
have the necessary documents or information available to enable it to
consider the amount of bail fixed by the Judges' Chamber. It therefore
remitted the case to the Judges' Chamber emphasising that it was
incumbent upon the latter, in the light of a detailed examination of
Neumeister's circumstances and of the financial situation of the
guarantors he could name to fix the bail between the limits of one and
two million schillings.

In a report dated 16 March 1964, drawn up at the request of the
Judges' Chamber, the Economic Police of Vienna expressed the opinion
that Neumeister was quite unable to obtain two million schillings.
This opinion was based on a number of documents from which it appeared
that the Scherzinger firm was hardly in a healthy financial position
and on the fact that Maria Neumeister stated that she could procure a
guarantee of five hundred thousand schillings.

The Judges' Chamber of the Regional Criminal Court of Vienna reached
its decision on 31 March 1964, that is, two weeks after the preferment
of the indictment (paragraphs 19 and 21 infra). Besides mentioning
the report of the Economic Police, it referred to a letter written by
Neumeister dated 25 February 1964, according to which a person who
wished to remain anonymous had agreed to provide security of one
million two hundred and fifty thousand schillings. After adding
together this sum and the five hundred thousand schillings offered by
Maria Neumeister, the Judges' Chamber reduced the amount of security
required of the Applicant to one million seven hundred and fifty
thousand schillings.

In an appeal dated 20 April 1964, Neumeister requested that the sum
should be reduced to one million two hundred and fifty thousand
schillings; he maintained that the offer made by his daughter was
included within that of the guarantor who did not wish to disclose his
identity.

The Vienna Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal on 20 May 1964. It
was of the opinion that the Judges' Chamber had complied with the
decision of 4 February and that the consequences of the offence were
of fundamental importance in the application of Section 192 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure.

19. Meanwhile Judge Leonhard had, on 4 November 1963, announced the
conclusion of the preliminary investigation and had sent the file to
the Public Prosecution (Sections 111-112 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure). The file consisted of twenty-one volumes each of about
five hundred pages, as well as a considerable number of other
documents. On 17 March 1964, the Public Prosecution of Vienna had,
for its part, completed the indictment (Anklageschrift) of which
Neumeister had been notified on 26 March (Sections 207 and 208 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure).

20. In the execution of his task, the Investigating Judge had been
aided by the Economic Police of Vienna, by the taxation department
(Inspector Besau), by the Austrian railways and by the postal service
administration; nevertheless, he had still encountered considerable
difficulties.
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