He became a father for the first time ten months ago, and it would somehow make sense now to invest specifically in the future.

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He became a father for the first time ten months ago, and it would somehow make sense now to invest specifically in the future.

Now, finally, he had to file for personal bankruptcy. « I own next to nothing, » he says. He became a father for the first time ten months ago, and it would somehow make sense now to invest specifically in the future.

The terrorist who is broke – welcome to the world of animal rights activist Martin Balluch, 54. Accused nine years ago under the so-called « anti-mafia paragraph » (see box, page 34), he and twelve other animal rights activists were charged with « education. » of a criminal organization « in court in Wiener Neustadt for 14 months. Three years earlier, under the aegis of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism, or BVT for short, which was currently at the center of a parliamentary committee of inquiry, a specially assembled special unit had started its work.

Bloated bundle

« Special commission to combat organized crime to the detriment of the clothing trade » was the name of the task force, which has long since been disbanded, made up of more than 30 officials. Four large eavesdropping attacks, installation of tracking devices on cars, systematic video surveillance of house entrances – the investigation file against Martin Balluch and his colleagues quickly swelled to more than 10,000 pages. Alone, that is certain today: Criminally relevant facts could not be distilled out of the bloated bundle.

Flashback to 2010. It is the time before radical Islamist convicts or anarchist state objectors move into the authorities’ field of vision. And so the public prosecutor’s office locates the real public enemies in the pigsty.

The exploration and storming of animal fattening farms, the disturbance actions in front of shops, the well-known blockades and chaining actions, the hindrance of gate hunts, in short: the purely administrative actions to which the Austrian scene openly acknowledges – all of which are artfully put in touch by the prosecution with an internationally operating Fundi army based in Great Britain called the Animal Liberation Front.

This is a fighting group organized via Internet secret forums and coded messages, a kind of Red Army faction in the service of animals, which carries out arson attacks on animal factories and test laboratories without regard to injured or dead people. Radical activists such as the Briton Keith Mann, who was imprisoned for 14 years for arson on a large scale, go unchecked. « All we have left is to turn to extremism, » is his haunting mantra. And so one is also alarmed in this country.

« The animal rights groups active in Austria are () integrated into comprehensive network structures, » noted the constitutional protection officers of the Ministry of the Interior in their management report in the months before the start of the Wiener Neustädter animal protection process.essayhelp reliable And the investigators who investigated Balluch and colleagues write in their minutes about « the planning and implementation of fanatically-militant animal rights actions ». The prosecutor sees a « double strategy between legal and illegal actions ». A field of tension in which the judiciary has a clear center: It’s called Martin Balluch, is the head of the NGO « Verein gegen Tierfabriken » and has been something like the pop star of Austrian animal protection since the turn of the millennium.

Pubescent revolutionary

The studied mathematician, physicist and philosopher, the eloquent double doctor and former Cambridge lecturer, is heavily suspect: less from a criminal law perspective, more from a petty bourgeois, than a flirtatious mixture of revolutionary and self-marketer: « I was on my first as a 13-year-old in 1978 Demo and was arrested by the police for the first time in 1979, « he writes in his memories of the early years. As a teenager, he was sentenced to a fine for passive resistance at an anti-nuclear power plant demonstration. He rejects physical violence – but not solid pathos, the guru of the local animal rights scene, currently on paternity leave, sees himself and his own as the bearer of a tremendous tradition: « Martin Luther King was not jailed about 20 times, just like Mahatma Gandhi and other recognized figures of political resistance, « writes Balluch. And: « Yes, certain forms of illegal activities can definitely fall within the scope of acts of civil disobedience that are unobjectionable in terms of democratic politics. »

Grueling lust for the flesh

Illegal Activities? Civil disobedience? Does this rebellious animal lover and his helpers want to stroke the foundations of our republic to death? It would be possible! And so the « Soko clothing trade », now completely unleashed, even infiltrated an undercover investigator in order to wear down the strict vegans with their lust for meat. A spy with the sonorous name « Danielle Durand » and a Styrian accent is smuggled into the scene and specifically approaches one of Balluch’s closest employees. « She wanted to get as close as possible to me. When we were alone for the first time, she literally tore my clothes off, » he says.

From rabbit hutch to trouser hutch, the woman with the code name Durand researched undercover among animal rights activists for 15 months. From series demos against a textile chain and hunting sabotages in Burgenland to computer workshops and a vegan meeting in Holland – the woman was there for something special everywhere. Even at a protest against « police arbitrariness » in front of the Ministry of the Interior, so to speak her boss’s office, she was angry at the front line. At the same time as Durand, sometimes even side by side with the professional, there was also an amateur agent who was named « Confidant 481″ in the files. After she had already participated in one or the other animal rights demonstration – still of her own free will – the Soko boss was now able to win the red-haired mid-forties as an informant. Brief summary of her undercover mission: « Back then I was drunk day and night. » Which in turn disillusioned the Soko boss himself: « The undercover investigation did not bring any results, » he summed up in court.

Detectives and agents

The main defendant Martin Balluch and the twelve co-defendants were acquitted in May 2011 after 1o5 days in custody and 98 days of trial, and the verdict became final just under six months later. He says he still owes his lawyer around 490,000 euros. But there were additional costs, such as around 30,000 euros that he spent on the two private detectives who ultimately uncovered the two smuggled agents. According to Section 393 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, who stood before a single judge at a district court, is entitled to a lump sum of 1,200 euros as reimbursement for defense costs. In the name of the republic, file closed.

« I own next to nothing, » says Martin Balluch, a father for ten months. The total cost of the investigation by the « Special Commission to Combat Organized Crime to the Detriment of the Clothing Trade » – they amount, cautiously, to six million euros.

A paragraph against the mafia

The indictment against Martin Balluch was based essentially on Section 278a of the Criminal Code, the so-called « Mafia Paragraphs ». Roughly speaking, it is about making the formation of a criminal organization a criminal offense. Among other things, this paragraph says: « Anyone who establishes a long-term, company-like association of a large number of people or participates in such an association as a member, which () thereby strives for enrichment on a large scale or significant influence on politics or the economy () is punishable by imprisonment from six months to five years. «

The arbitrariness trap. But aiming for « significant influence on politics or economy » – what does that mean? Basically, legal experts complained, that if interpreted in an extreme manner, almost any activity for an NGO could be criminalized. The indictment of Balluch and his colleagues was essentially based on this passage – which has now been completely deleted from the criminal law. And even if Balluch was ultimately acquitted, against the background of the slimmed-down text it would not even have been enough for an indictment.

This article originally appeared in News Issue No. 11/19

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Mailyn P. Sun. March 24th. 2019 12:13

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And the break-ins is stables, arson, letting out of animals has never existed? .. The terror paragraph about it was and is wrong. Advertisement and private suits would have been necessary. And one more thing …. Balluch has never taken a public position against the permitted slaughtering. So much for animal welfare on his part.

Freemind Wed, March 27. 2019 08:39

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@Mailyn P .: If you have no idea what you are writing, you should leave it. Here is the link to Balluch’s public statement against slaughtering.

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Page 1 of 1 »

As the head of a criminal organization became an animal rights activist

Martin Balluch

Spied on by revealing agents, accused – and finally acquitted. Now procedural costs of half a million euros make him bankrupt

The times of innocence are barren: the man who was Stephen Hawking’s assistant at Cambridge University will now have to live on the subsistence level for ten years. A lawsuit brought against him by the Republic of Austria cost him almost half a million euros. He was finally acquitted. But he is still sitting on the defense costs, just 1,200 euros, according to the law, were refunded to him. Now, finally, he had to file for personal bankruptcy. « I own next to nothing, » he says. He became a father for the first time ten months ago, and it would somehow make sense now to invest specifically in the future.

Bloated bundle

« The animal rights groups active in Austria are () integrated into comprehensive network structures, » noted the constitutional protection officers of the Ministry of the Interior in their management report in the months before the start of the Wiener Neustädter animal protection process. And the investigators who investigated Balluch and colleagues write in their minutes about « the planning and implementation of fanatically-militant animal rights actions ». The prosecutor sees a « double strategy between legal and illegal actions ». A field of tension in which the judiciary has a clear center: It’s called Martin Balluch, is the head of the NGO « Verein gegen Tierfabriken » and has been something like the pop star of Austrian animal protection since the turn of the millennium.

Pubescent revolutionary

Frederic BONHOMME