GERMAN STATE premier Dieter Althaus, a political ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, was found guilty of manslaughter by neglect yesterday for causing the death of a woman in a skiing accident.
Mr Althaus, a senior member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and premier in the eastern state of Thuringia, was fined a total of €38,000 by an Austrian court.
On New Year’s Day, Mr Althaus collided with Slovakian woman Beata Christandl on a ski slope in Styria. Ms Christandl, a mother of four, sustained a skull fracture and died later in hospital.
According to German media reports, investigators have established that Mr Althaus caused the accident by cutting across another slope and skiing in the wrong direction.
Mr Althaus is still recovering from his injuries and did not attend yesterday’s hearing. In a statement to the court yesterday, he said he regretted the accident deeply but had no memory of it.
In a brief hearing, the court in Irdning imposed the fine, noting that “no punishment can be as great as the emotional burden of having a human life on one’s conscience”.
The 50-year-old politician has headed the government in Thuringia since 2003 and is considered one of the country’s most popular state premiers. He is facing re-election at the end of August, a month before the general election, and has yet to speak publicly about the accident.
Party colleagues in Erfurt, the Thuringian capital, said yesterday they were happy that the verdict “had ended all speculation” about the case. “The CDU stands firmly behind Dieter Althaus,” said a party spokesman. “He will return shortly to political life.”
German citizens are prohibited from standing for public office only if they hold convictions handed down from a German court.
