Austria is not normally cited as an example of a police state, but two cases now before the Commission of Human Rights show that country's legal system in an unsavoury light. The first concerns a Fritz Neumeister.
He has been detained in prison in Austria since 12 July 1962, as being a suspected accomplice in the fraudulent obtaining of refunds of taxes payable on exported goods. His prindple claims are that the delay in bringing him to trial and the failure to release him in the meanwhile in spite of his requests, on a reasonable bail, constitute violations of the provisions of the Convention on Human Rights, which guarantee, except in certain limited circumstances, the right to liberty of the individual,
The second,Ernst Stoegmueller, had been arrested in March 1958 and accused with certain accomplices of offences of fraud and usury. He was released in April 1958 during the investigation of his case, but was rearrested in August 1961 and held in detention until August 1963, when he was released on bail. The investigation of the charges against him of mis: -_ appropriation of funds, fraud and usury has not yet been completed. It had been alleged by Stoegmueller that his detention constituted viohations of the Convention on Human Rights in that he was arrested and detained without reasonable suspicion that he had committed an offence , that he had not been brought to trial within a reasonable time, and finally, that the investigating judge had refused to hear witnesses in his defence.