The German Federal Ministry of Transport is declining to comment on the indictment brought against former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) regarding allegations of false statements made before the committee investigating the planned road toll system.
A ministry spokesperson, responding to a query from the dts news agency on Wednesday, stated that the ministry would refrain from making any statements on the matter. When asked whether the ministry would support the former minister in the proceedings or maintain a distance, the spokesperson clarified that the indictment concerns Andreas Scheuer as an individual and not the ministry itself.
The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office announced earlier that it had filed charges against Scheuer and former State Secretary Gerhard Schulz before the Berlin Regional Court I. The charges relate to questions posed in the road toll investigation committee concerning whether the operating companies had, at a meeting on November 29, 2018, offered to sign the contracts only after a decision from the European Court of Justice. According to the indictment, both men allegedly stated, contrary to their actual recollection, that they did not remember such an offer to postpone the signing.
The prosecution asserts these were deliberate false statements. Both accused deny the allegations. Scheuer himself told “Bild” newspaper on Wednesday that the indictment was “incomprehensible” to him and that he considered the timing and motivations behind it to be politically driven.