The affair has been shaking the Hessian judiciary since the summer of 2020. (Image: dpa)
Dusseldorf The Frankfurt Regional Court sentenced the former senior public prosecutor Alexander Badle to six years in prison on Friday for corruption, breach of trust and tax evasion. The judges found the top lawyer guilty of bribery in 86 counts, 54 counts of breach of trust and nine counts of tax evasion.
Badle, who was considered a luminary in the field as Hesse’s top anti-corruption fighter, had confessed to having collected bribes himself for more than a decade. However, only the acts from the period between 2015 and 2020, which was not statute-barred, were accused. According to the indictment, Badle received bribes of around 350,000 euros during this time.
The funds, totaling several hundred thousand euros, went to external service providers for the assignment of expert orders – above all to the company of a former school friend. This existed almost exclusively from orders from the public prosecutor’s office: according to the indictment, it generated 90 percent of its sales with state orders.
school friend as an accomplice
The court sentenced the entrepreneur, who was also charged with Badle, to two years and nine months in prison for bribery and subsidy fraud.
Prosecutors had asked for seven and a half years in prison for Badle and three and a half years for his school friend. The prosecutors attested Badle a “high level of criminal energy”. He “willfully misused” his position as head of the central office for combating property crime and corruption in the health care system and “did considerable damage to the state of Hesse”.
The defense attorneys each pleaded for much lighter sentences: Badle’s defense attorneys to four years in prison, those of the school friend even demanded a suspended sentence of a maximum of two years in prison.
Claims for recourse in the millions, investigations against prosecutors continue
In July 2020, the criminal activity was exposed and Badle was arrested at his workplace. As press spokesman for the General Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt, he was one of the figureheads of the authority and enjoyed the highest reputation – this is one of the reasons why the case shook the Hessian judiciary in the long term. The investigation was initiated by Badles’ former partner, who has since died.
Badle has been in custody again since January 2022. After being released from prison in the meantime, he was arrested again after the allegations had expanded. In June 2022, the public prosecutor’s office then presented the indictment, and the trial before the 24th Criminal Chamber, chaired by Werner Gröschel, has been running since January.
In his closing remarks on Wednesday, Badle regretted his actions. He takes full responsibility for it. In addition to the prison sentence, he is now also facing recourse claims from the state of Hesse. In various recourse proceedings, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office “issued notices on the determination and assertion of claims for damages for breaches of duty amounting to an amount in the millions,” said a spokeswoman for the Hessian Ministry of Justice.
The complex also continues under criminal law: investigations are continuing against two of Badle’s former colleagues – a senior public prosecutor and a public prosecutor.
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