BOLZANO. L’avvocato Gerhard Brandstätter, difensore di Luis Durnwalder, he did opposition to the notification of the summons decree in the opinion of the former president of the Province, as it was written in German. In other words, the lawyer and the accused, despite both being German native speakers, requested the annulment of the document and its replacement with a decree in Italian, i.e. in the language they had previously chosen.
Judge Giulia Rossi reserved the right to decide, in the next hearing on November 13thwhether or not to accept this request. If accepted, the proceedings will have to start again with a new judge and this will lead to a delay of several months.
The story refers to ainvestigation for forgery of public documents: Durnwalder had asked to be able to pay a sum of instalments 27 thousand euros in fiscal damagefollowing a sentence imposed on him by the Court of Auditors. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Durnwalder would not have had the right to request the payment in installments as it would be an option that can only be granted under certain financial emergency conditions.
The refusal by the defense of the notification in German may appear surreal at first sight but it is necessary, in this regard, to remember the rules on the bilingual process in South Tyrol: the choice of the language of the trial by the accused is in fact free and disconnected from his belonging to an ethnic group. The reason for the choice of Italian, in this concrete case, would however be attributable to the defense’s desire to be supported, later on, by an Italian-speaking lawyer.
It is now up to the judge to decide, considering among the various elements also the fact that Durnwalder himself indicated that he preferred the German language when serving the notice of guarantee at home.