political

According to German laboratories, traces on a water bottle in Navalny’s hotel room should prove that the Kremlin critic was poisoned in Tomsk. The Russian government doubts that. The story contains “too much absurdity,” a spokesman said.

The Kremlin has doubts about new evidence of the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny. His team reported yesterday that traces of the neurotoxin Novichok had been found on a water bottle in Navalny’s hotel room in the Siberian city of Tomsk. “The story contains too much absurdity to take anyone’s word,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Interfax.

“We cannot explain that because the bottle, if it was, was brought abroad – to Germany or elsewhere,” Peskow continued. What was supposed to be evidence of poisoning was taken away. “Toxicologists say that a bottle with traces of a chemical warfare agent cannot just be brought anywhere,” said the Kremlin spokesman. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert did not want to give any information about the whereabouts of the water bottle.

Russia demands the results of the investigation

Navalny’s supporters announced in an Instagram video on Thursday that bottles and other items had been seized from the hotel in Tomsk after Navalny collapsed on a domestic flight to Moscow. A German laboratory detected the Novitschok traces on the water bottle, it said.

The government in Moscow has recently claimed that Navalny may have been poisoned after his departure and not in Russia.

According to their own account, Russian doctors had found no evidence of poisoning. Kremlin spokesman Peskov said that information could only be obtained if Germany made the results of the investigation available to Russia.

Navalny has been treated at the Berlin Charité since August 22nd. He was in an artificial coma for weeks. He’s doing better now. According to information from special laboratories, he was poisoned with an internationally banned nerve agent from the Novichok group. Russia denies allegations of having anything to do with the case.

A curious story came to an end before the BGH: If a car is no longer returned and sold during a test drive, the new buyer may keep the car – if he acted in good faith.

By Franziska Kring and Kolja Schwartz, ARD legal editor

The story begins in August 2017: A man appears in a car dealership and is interested in a high-class Mercedes worth 52,900 euros. He presents an Italian passport, a driver’s license and a confirmation of registration from Germany and is given the car for a one-hour test drive. He never comes back from this. The dealership notices: The papers were forged, the given cell phone number was wrong.

A few days later a woman sees the Mercedes van on the Internet and reports to the alleged owner on the ad. An appointment is made to hand over the car at Hamburg Central Station. The woman pays 46,500 euros in cash, has an ID from the seller and also receives the registration papers in which the seller is noted and two car keys.

The rude awakening comes when the buyer wants to let the car on her. The authorities refused because the car was reported as stolen. It turns out: It’s the car from the test drive. The papers were forged and pretty good at that. Only one of the keys fit, which the buyer hadn’t noticed.

Dealership wanted car back

For the car dealer, the matter was clear. He wanted the woman’s car back. After all, he is still the owner. He only wanted to give the supposedly prospective buyer the vehicle for a test drive. He could not be blamed for taking the car with him. In addition, the buyer should have been suspicious of the entire circumstances of the conclusion of the contract. The unusual place of sale, the person of the seller, a sketchy written sales contract – she should have noticed all of this.

The disappointed buyer saw things very differently. After all, she paid for the car and didn’t go wrong with the purchase. She therefore asked the dealership to provide the original registration papers. The matter went to court.

Buyer acted in good faith

From a legal point of view, it is like this: In principle, you can also acquire property if you are not buying from the owner. And then, if one is in good faith and was allowed to be. Here the papers were forged so well that the woman could assume she was buying from the owner, so she was in good faith.

However, the Civil Code knows an exception: According to Paragraph 935, purchase in good faith is not possible if the item has previously been stolen from the owner or otherwise “got lost”. That means nothing else than that the owner involuntarily lost the property.

Possession is not property

At first glance, one would think: The buyer could not acquire the property, but legally the matter is more complicated. One thing is clear: The dealership did not want to transfer ownership to the supposed buyer. But property is not property. Therefore, the BGH had to clarify the question: Did the dealership voluntarily let the man own the car, or was the car still in the dealer’s possession during the test drive?

The dealership has no control over the vehicle during a test drive

The lower courts disagreed, now the top judges decided in civil matters: The car dealership had no more control over the vehicle during the one-hour test drive. There was no employee in the car and there were also no technical devices to influence the car from a distance. The alleged buyer had to leave a copy of his ID and his mobile phone number. However, this made it impossible for the car dealer to access the car at any time.

With the voluntary release of the vehicle for a test drive, ownership has passed. The car was not stolen from the dealership either, but the perpetrator later embezzled it. Of course also punishable, but the crucial difference when it comes to the question of whether the woman could become the owner.

Buyer now receives original papers

The woman was able to acquire the property in good faith and, according to the ruling from Karlsruhe, now also receives the original papers so that she can finally use the car. The dealership is of course entitled to compensation from the man who embezzled the car. The problem: whether it will ever be found is far from likely.

(Az. V ZR 8/19)

Higher taxes with higher consumption: The Bundestag has decided to reform the vehicle tax. This is intended to encourage citizens to buy more fuel-efficient cars. But there are doubts whether the new rules are sufficient.

From 2021, the new vehicle tax will increase for new cars with high fuel consumption. The Bundestag decided on a corresponding reform on Thursday evening. This is supposed to encourage citizens to buy more economical cars. Cars that have already been registered are not affected.

In the future, vehicle tax will be geared more towards how much CO2 a vehicle emits. The CO2 component is weighted more heavily than the displacement. The reform also includes the extension of the vehicle tax exemption for purely electric vehicles that is already in force until December 31, 2025. It should last until the end of 2030 at the latest.

Up to four euros per gram of CO2

For cars newly registered from 2021 that emit more than 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer, a surcharge of two euros is to be levied on the tax burden otherwise calculated on the basis of the cubic capacity for each additional gram. The surcharge will then gradually increase to up to four euros per additional gram of CO2 for vehicles with particularly high CO2 emissions of more than 195 grams per kilometer. For cars registered from June 2020 to the end of 2024 with less than 95 grams of CO2 emissions, there is to be an annual tax bonus of 30 euros for a maximum of five years.

In order to achieve climate targets, emissions have to be reduced, especially in traffic. New registrations of e-cars are increasing due to higher government purchase subsidies, but they are still at a low level. The federal government emphasized that the reform would serve to protect the climate, but at the same time mobility should remain affordable.

The motor vehicle tax is a federal tax. It brings the federal government in around nine billion euros per year. Criticism came from environmentalists and the Greens. Greens parliamentary deputy Oliver Krischer told the German press agency: “With its poor reform, the federal government will hardly accelerate the switch to clean electric cars or more economical cars.”

A study by the Ecological-Social Market Economy Forum on behalf of the Greens parliamentary group comes to the conclusion that the reform planned by the federal government is not ambitious enough to have such a steering effect – namely, to encourage customers to buy vehicles with lower emissions. On average, the vehicle tax increases by 15.80 euros per year, with many cars nothing will change. In a European comparison, Germany has low CO2-based vehicle taxes, but at the same time new vehicles in Germany emit the most CO2.

Criticism from environmentalists and ADAC

The transport expert of the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND), Jens Hilgenberg, said that the reform is not much more than actionism. “There are hardly any incentives to buy lower-emission or even so-called locally emission-free vehicles instead of highly emitting bodies.” Driving cars with high fuel consumption would have to be significantly more expensive and unattractive if the federal government were serious about climate protection.

ADAC traffic president Gerhard Hillebrand also sees the current reform as only a first step. “In the future, we have to consistently and completely align the vehicle tax with CO2 emissions in order to achieve an optimal steering effect.” The present draft law is still a justifiable compromise between more incentives for climate protection and affordable mobility.

Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer wants to compensate gay soldiers who were systematically discriminated between 1955 and 2000. She apologized to those affected.

By Kai Clement, ARD capital studio

“The Bundeswehr’s attitude towards homosexuality was wrong. It was wrong back then and lagged behind society” – Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer found clear words. It is shameful and unheard of that the troop has systematically discriminated against homosexuals for decades since it was founded.

Like Dierk Koch. He was released from the troops in 1964 – dishonorable. “Can you imagine how I felt?” He asks. “On that day, at noon, I was homeless, destitute and demoted by the Bundeswehr.”

Defense minister apologizes

It was not until 2000 that the then Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping ended the practice – and that only under pressure from outside, according to Kramp-Karrenbauer, because of a constitutional complaint. The criminal prosecution of homosexuals had been in the past 30 years: “I very much regret this practice. And I apologize to those who have suffered from it.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer presented a study of over 360 pages. The result: For the Bundeswehr, homosexuality was a serious flaw, a security risk. “I can hardly imagine what constant tension, what fear, but also what humiliation it was.” The minister now wants to rehabilitate those affected. She is also planning an – albeit symbolic – compensation payment.

Criticism of the time

From the perspective of the Greens, all of this is good and right, according to their spokesman for queer politics, Sven Lehmann. But it comes late: “Many of the former soldiers are already at a very old age. And if they should now have something from compensation and also from possible pensions, then there must now be a fast and unbureaucratic procedure for this law.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer announced that the law will shortly go into departmental voting. The Bundeswehr of today is different, even if there is still discrimination.

Hides homosexuality – out of fear

Sven Bäring agrees. He tells of an excellent complaint system. And yet he, who only joined the Bundeswehr decades after Dierk Koch, heard the following: “‘You know, I was announced. With the hint: I have two bad news for you: You will get a room neighbor and he is also gay yet.’ I joined the Bundeswehr in 2013 and didn’t tell anyone. I still remember my mother saying to me pretty well that I shouldn’t tell anyone in the Bundeswehr about it – she was afraid for me. “

Today Bäring is the chairman of the “QueerBw” association for homosexuals in the Bundeswehr. When he hears reports from contemporary witnesses such as marine Dierk Koch, it gives him a shiver, he says.

After all, Koch experienced an understanding father when he – dishonorably dismissed – suddenly stood in front of the door: “He looked at me very gently,” reports Koch. “Then he gave me a friendly pat on the back of the head and said: ‘Then we have to see that we can find a job for you tomorrow. And by the way, we don’t have to tell mom about it.’ At that moment I loved my father immensely. “