|
Austria Military Justice
Sections 533 to 684 of the national criminal code deal with
military offenses; there is no separate military code of justice,
and there is no legal (judge advocate) organization in the armed
forces. All actions in serious criminal cases involving military
personnel, except those related to breaches of military
discipline, are remanded to civil courts. The same holds true in
wartime, although specific courts would be designated for
military cases. Although no military person can be tried twice on
the same charge, he can appear before an all-military
disciplinary commission to be judged on purely military aspects
of a crime.
For example, if a military person is accused of murder on an
army base, military authorities notify the civil police, and the
accused is taken into civil custody and tried before a civil
court. The investigation, court, judges, and legal personnel are
the same as those involved had the incident occurred among
civilians. If the court finds the defendant guilty, it may
sentence him to life imprisonment. The defendant is then called
before a military disciplinary commission made up of military
personnel. Commission members include, among others, servicemen
of the same rank and from the same branch as the accused. The
commission does not reconsider evidence relating to the crime,
but it divests the defendant of his military rank, dishonorably
discharges him from the service, and forfeits his pay and
allowances up to the time of the action. Disciplinary commissions
at the level of the Ministry for National Defense have
professional lawyers on, or acting as advisers to, the
commission; those at lower organizational levels ordinarily do
not.
Unit discipline complies with accepted practice in nearly all
armed forces. Infractions of the code of military discipline
(military-specific offenses such as absence without leave or
insubordination) are taken care of by company commanders if the
appropriate punishment is a reprimand, extra duty, confinement to
quarters, or the like. Battalion and brigade commanders can hand
down somewhat more severe punishments, such as reduction in grade
or confinement to base guardhouses for short periods.
Data as of December 1993
|
