The Federal Court of Justice confirms the sentence against a police inspector accused of sexual assault. More proceedings are pending.
The defendant at the beginning of his trial in April last year in Stuttgart Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
KARLSRUHE taz | The suspended police inspector of the Baden-Württemberg state police, Andreas Renner, was also acquitted in the appeal process by the 1st Criminal Senate of the Federal Court of Justice. With this he puts an end to the nationwide process against the state's top police officer.
Last June, Renner was acquitted by the Stuttgart regional court of sexually assaulting a police officer under his command in front of a Stuttgart bar. The court considered in his reasoning that what happened was “inexplicable.”
Like the Stuttgart judges, the Federal Court of Justice concluded that the extensive video footage of the evening inside the bar did not reveal any form of coercion or pressure. In this sense, the affected agent's descriptions of what happened in front of the bar, which was not recorded by a camera, are not credible. With the ruling of the Federal Court of Justice, the acquittal is final.
With this, the criminal part of the process against Renner ends for now. He now faces a disciplinary process, which will then be carried out by the State Ministry of the Interior, but which has been suspended until the end of the criminal process.
There is now the risk of a disciplinary procedure.
Renner is accused of exploiting his position to make sexual advances toward subordinates. Among other things, he is said to have sent nude photographs of himself to his subordinate agents. He is now internally examining whether this is compatible with the official duties of the head of the Baden-Württemberg police. Until this procedure is completed, Renner will be released from his duties with full pay. At the end of the disciplinary procedure there could also be a demotion in the rank of civil service.
Renner also faces bribery charges. During a video call with the agent in question after the night in question, he reportedly promised the woman benefits if she entered into a sexual relationship with him.
Staying with the police is “hard to imagine”
Renner's defense is currently celebrating the acquittal. He hopes that legal peace will now be restored, said Renner's defense attorney, Ricarda Lang. The co-plaintiff's representative Holger-C. Rohne said: “The inspector's acquittal came about for lack of evidence.” He didn't say anything about what really happened.
It is considered unlikely that Renner will be able to remain in a prominent position in the police force. The Minister of the Interior, Thomas Strobl, had already said during the criminal proceedings that, taking into account the facts established in the proceedings, it was difficult to imagine that Renner would be assigned personal responsibilities in the police again.