Mistrial

• From the Wiesbadener Kurier, 11 Jul 1968:  "Mainz, 10 July.  A mistrial has been declared in the Mainzer war crimes trial because of .  A substitute committee of the Landgericht determined, after deliberating 12 hours, that dismissal of three professional judges of the jury [German juries consist of professional, legally trained members plus citizen members] is justified on grounds they may not be impartial in the trial of two former National Socialist functionaries.  In the trial, in progress since 2 Oct 1967, which has cost more than half a million Marks, the former NS-functionaries Werner and Windisch were called upon to defend their participation in the mass executions of 13,000 Jews and Gypsies in the Soviet Union in 1942.  The committee was charged by the jury with ruling on the question whether  the professional jurors were still impartial, or if they had known about a listening device connecting the court toom with the office of the Landgericht president, and thereupon decided not to inform the accused and their counsel of its existence.  Before the professional jurors decided to prove their impartiality in the listening affair, they had been rejected by the accused and their counsel as partial.  The Oberlandgericht in Koblenz had, however, rejected this attempt as inadmissable, because it had not been done within the legal time limit.  Justice Minister for the Rheinland-Pfalz Schneider had also interjected himself into the affair and charged the president of the Koblenz Oberlandgericht to report to him.  The Minister had spoken of the possibility, of initiating legal disciplinary action against the Mainz Landgericht president Dr. van de Sand, who had ordered installation of the listening device.  The Justice Ministry had on its side refused an application for installation of the device.  According to information from  the defense, the trial will unfold once more in fall before a new jury ".
• From the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz,, 12 July 1968:  by our editorial staff member Guenther Leicher  "Mainz, 11 July.  First it was an "Affair", gradually it's assuming the scale of a full-blown judicial scandal.  First it seemed to be that only the technical pleasure of a Landgericht president was the cause for an expensive and drawn out trial to reach a premature and inglorious end, now it turns out that there can no longer be talk of "technical gamesmanship" and that in connection with this affair there is only one guilty party.  The three substitute judges, whose Wednesday night declaration of partiality on the part of the three Mainz professional jurors brought about the end of the Werner/Windisch trial, are of this opinion, at any rate.  They came to the conclusion in their decision, which excited attention across the entire Bundesrepublic, that their three colleagues, on discovering the existence of the listening device, had not done everythin in their power to prevent this attack on the personal rights of the accused and the independence of the jury. It is not clear why they didn't inform the defense of the existence of this device immediately on learning of its existence themselves, albeit only weeks after its installation.  Didn't they know - which is quite improbable - that by so doing they handed the defense attorneys grounds for appeal, or didn't they want to unmask the president?  Or did they really believe that the secret could be kept, so that the trial could be completed without the defense finding out about it?  Thus the Mainz scandal's circle widens.  Whose's going to end up in its whirlpool is still unclear.  There seems to be hardly anything that can shield the Landgerichts president any more.  The disciplinary action instituted against him by the Justice Ministry is the preliminary discovery stage, whose decision, awaited in a few days, will determine if a formal process before the Judges' Service Court in Zweibruecken will be initiated.  Independent of this result, the results of the investigation directed by the Oberlandesgerichts-president in Koblenz as superior of the Mainz president ordered by the Justice Ministry will determine if Max van de Sand (58) will take early retirement:  that is, will be suspended - a decision that will appeal to the Zweibruecker Judges' Service Court if it comes to preventing judiciary difficulties.  That the Landgericht President didn't trip on his "hot wire" unknowingly has been determined in the meantime.  His application for permission to install such a listening device, which he simply submitted for approval to obtain the necessary materials, to the Ministy, was denied from fundamental considerations and with concommitant information that legal procedural considerations were involved in the denial.  At the latest from this point in time, he had to realize that his hot wire was going to be categorizes as "something outside the bounds of legality".   A young intern judge had made the the disrespectful joking suggestion, as his president had described his latest acquisitio at the judges' table, to connect the device to a signal light at the judge's bench, so that when the hot wire was in use, he could greet his president appropriately.
• From the Wiesbadener Kurier, 12 Aug 1968:  "11 Aug. Justice Minister for the Rheinland-Pfalz Schneider (FDP) wishes to initiate a disciplinary proceeding against Mainz Landgericht President Dr. van de Sand before the responsible Justicial Court in Zweibruecken in connection with the listening device affair of the Mainz war crimes trial.  Mistrial was declared - as reported - a month ago in the case against both former NS-functionaries Windisch and Werner because of this listening device, wich Dr. van de Sand had installed connecting his office with the court room".
• From the Wiesbadener Kurier, 15. Aug 1968:  "14. Aug. The Mainz war crimes trial, in which a mistrial was declared in July after more than nine months on account of the so-called "Bugging Affair", will probably not resume before spring 1969.  This stated a member of the defense team in the proceedings against the participation by former NS-functionaries Windisch and Werner in mass executions in Russia in 1942.  It is the view of the defense that the new trial will last more than half a year because the testimony will have to taken again.  The accused Werner and Windisch have in the meantime lodged complaints with the Oberlandsgericht in Koblenz regarding their continuing to be  kept in interrogatory custody".

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