The leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is bringing legal action against key members of the government for neglect and illegal people trafficking.
In advance of the suit being filed today, FPÖ leader Heinz Christian Strache said on state television that he was to bring action against the Austrian chancellor, the interior minister, and defence secretary. In addition, he today brought a suit against senior managers of the Austrian railway, reports TheLocal.at.
By allowing tens of thousands of “uncontrolled and unregistered people” to cross Austria by rail, the suit alleges senior figures in the Austrian railway were in fact acting as people smugglers — a crime in Austria. While the government has dismissed the claims as “frivolous”, the railways board has taken the effort to issue a rebuttal, claiming that because none of the illegals were charged to use the railway, they were not technically trafficking them, reports Deutsche Welle.
Many European rail companies have long-since given up charging migrants fares to use the railways to get across Europe, either out of a desire to avoid confrontation, getting the migrants out of their own nation and into the next as quickly as possible, or out of political conviction. Sweden is one such nation, which not only gives foreigners free rail travel but has laid on extra trains to meet demand as well.
Explaining why he had notified the Austrian state prosecutor of what he considered to be breaches of the law, Mr. Strache told state television: “Since early September, hundreds of thousands of people were able to enter an uncontrolled manner over the border to Austria”. He said he was reporting the politicians for “willful failure to enforce the Policing of Aliens act [2005]”.
Mr. Strache vowed to continue to address these breaches of the law during this parliament.
It may be the case that despite politicians and managers in state owned companies being in breach of the law, these technicalities will be swept under the carpet for the sake of political expediency by the Austrian establishment. Breitbart London reported yesterday that in neighbouring Germany a convicted people smuggler charging illegals €10,000 a time for entry to Europe escaped jail because the judge decided to show leniency.
It wasn’t appropriate to give the 35-year-old Serbian a potentially lengthy jail term the Passau district judge concluded because Angela Merkel had said repeatedly that refugees were welcome, and in doing so had effectively suspended normal German law.
Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann is also not the first head of state in Europe to have had legal action brought against them for their part in the migrant crisis. Hundreds of Germans took part in a citizens initiative last month, writing legal letters to the German chancellor to bring charges of treason against Chancellor Merkel.
Accusing her of using mass migration to change the German Republic, the petitioners claimed the right under Article 20 of the German Constitution “to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order, if no other remedy is available” in order to “safeguard our identity”.
Despite the carefully formulated legal letters, the prosecutor took no action.
Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com
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