Forest area destroyed

Will Ohlsdorf now be a case for the criminal court?

Where there used to be a forest, there is now a huge gravel site on which halls are to be built.

(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

Politicians and civil servants could now face a lot in the Ohlsdorf case: The climate protection organization AllRise is preparing a statement of facts for the public prosecutor's office following the improper clearing of a forest next to the A1 motorway. The conservationists' accusation: abuse of authority and deliberate damage to the environment!

Last year, the Court of Auditors examined the events surrounding the future "Ehrenfeld II Viecht" company construction area. The report published in December stated that the clearing of almost 19 hectares of forest was "not carried out properly". It took place "without sufficient examination of the conditions", the "Krone" reported. It was criticized that no environmental impact assessment had been requested by the province of Upper Austria and that the district authority of Gmunden had waved the clearing through without all the prescribed replacement reforestation areas having been determined.

Intervention only in the event of "imminent danger"
For AllRise lawyer Wolfram Proksch, this "action by the decision-makers" has criminal relevance. However, the Court of Audit will not take any legal action; it will only do so in exceptional cases, for example if "imminent danger" becomes apparent in the course of an audit, a spokesperson said. In the event of criminal suspicions in the final report, the public prosecutor's office could also take action on its own initiative. It was not yet known whether the competent public prosecutor's office in Wels had done so.

Grace period until March, otherwise charges will be brought
If there is no movement in this case by mid-March, AllRise will file a complaint against the decision-makers based on the Court of Audit report for possible abuse of official authority and for deliberately damaging the environment, Proksch clarified.

NEOS want a commission of inquiry in the provincial parliament
The NEOS would also like to clarify the political responsibilities in the case. This is why Klubobobmann Felix Eypeltauer, as Chairman of the Control Committee, wants to table a motion for a commission of inquiry in the state parliament at the meeting on March 20. The "suspicion of political influence and patterns of structural corruption" must be investigated.