Vegaplanet

This broke the search warrant on many occasions. For example, the Austrian courts say that search warrants must name the wanted objects and give the occupants the chance to give them over. A house search must also have concrete suspicions of illegal activity.

Four Animal organizations had their offices and storehouses raided. These organisations were brought to a standstill. One organization, the Verein Gegen Tierfabriken (VGT), had 10 years of work gathering information about animal exploitation taken despite the leading prosecutor saying that the VGT are accused of nothing. The Austrian police

The prisoners were not allowed to contact their next of kin or a solicitor.

The police tried to persuade these people to give evidence against each other and other campaigners.

The prisoners were not allowed to wash, one was not allowed to shower for a week nor change his clothes.

They had DNA samples taken from them forcefully in contradiction to this same law now used against them.

The prosecution have no documents which prove anything like criminal organizations. Instead the prosecution claims that the imprisoned people are suspected of damage to property such as the burning down of an empty hen-hall in 2000 and throwing of a stink bomb, exaggerated as a gas attack by the authorities. The prosecution have no evidence of this either.

After 17 days, 3 of the imprisoned people were finally accused of something. They were supposed to have threatened a fashion store press officer by hindering her from driving away. This was expected to justify hooded police battering down doors and forcing people out of beds with firearms.

The Prosecution have revealed that the police have investigated these organizations for years by bugging, their emails monitored and also having people followed. The prosecution can still not give any reason why this has happened. The 10 people necessary to invoke this draconian law barely stayed in contact with each other, with some not even knowing each other. A fact the intense police surveillance would have been aware of.

The prisoners were subjected to humiliating arrest in front of friends and family who were

An investigating police officer is charged now with misuse of authority after he was found to have falsified evidence. A supposed witness was supposed to have accused one of the prisoners of arson. This witness denied this. The cracks were beginning to show.

The flats of people not accused of anything were also searched and their mobile phones, computers etc taken and not given back.

The human rights organisation Amnesty International have issued a two page statement in response. They describe a string of abuses of the Austrian criminal law including the house searches. Amnesty International emphasizes, once again, that political and social activism as a freedom of expression is a protected human right. The statement criticises the use of section 278a of the criminal code being used against political activists noting “It seems inadequate to postulate a group involved in organised crime from a situation where a number of demonstrators arrange to resist state authority”.

Amnesty International pointed out that well known environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, for example, that might engage in actions such as occupying an atomic power plant could be said to have committed an offence under this law in doing so, and that as a consequence those who donate to their organisation could be charged with financing terrorism under criminal law. It is also pointed out that the term ‘organised crime’ is characterised by the intent to enrich oneself and refers to the gravest crimes. The intention to maximize profits is characteristic in these cases, such as trafficking and smuggling drugs, weapons and stolen art works, procuring prostitutes and trafficking in human beings.
This however is not the case with Not For Profit organizations such as those involved in this case.