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Alexander von Stahl

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Alexander von Stahl
Attorney General of Germany
In office
1 June 1990 – 6 July 1993
ChancellorHelmut Kohl
Preceded byKurt Rebmann
Succeeded byKay Nehm
Personal details
Born (1938-06-10) 10 June 1938 (age 86)
Berlin, Germany
Political partyFree Democratic Party

Alexander von Stahl (born 10 June 1938 in Berlin) is a German lawyer, liberal politician and civil servant. He served as Attorney General of Germany from June 1990 until July 1993.

Before he was appointed Attorney General, he served as an Under-Secretary of State in the Berlin State Ministry of Justice (1975–1989), in West Berlin.

His term as Attorney General was marked by the war on terror (particularly the Red Army Faction) and the prosecution of former communist criminals after the downfall of the GDR communist regime. In 1991, he indicted Erich Mielke, who was subsequently convicted of murder.[1] In 1992,

On 6 July 1993, he was removed from his post by the German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger following a row over the alleged police shooting of a suspected terrorist, Wolfgang Grams, on 27 June. The Minister of the Interior, Rudolf Seiters, had resigned two days before. An investigation did not reveal any wrongdoing on the part of the police or the authorities, and there were calls by some to reinstate Stahl in his position.[2] He has subsequently worked as a lawyer.

Stahl is a member of the Free Democratic Party. He became a member of the FDP in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1961, and served as a board member of the Berlin state party from 1989 until his appointment as Attorney General. He was Secretary General of the FDP parliamentary group in the Berlin state parliament from 1970 to 1975.

In the 1990s, he and other liberals tried to revive the national liberal tradition of the FDP.[3] He was a candidate for President of the Berlin state party in 1996 and 1998, but lost narrowly to the candidate of the left-wing, Martin Matz, who later defected to the SPD, retaining his parliamentary mandate. He is a prominent supporter of, contributor to, and lawyer for the right-wing newspaper Junge Freiheit.

In 2014, von Stahl and Bruno Jost received the inaugural Rule of Law Award from the American Federal Bar Association, for their work in establishing the involvement of the Iranian government in the 1992 Mykonos restaurant assassinations.[4][5] The Iranian-born writer Roya Hakakian credits von Stahl, in his capacity as Attorney General, for protecting the federal prosecution from political and diplomatic pressure, in spite of the fact that his political party had been in favor of trade and reconciliation with the Iranian regime. The landmark case in 1997 eventually turned public opinion and led to the withdrawal of all European Union ambassadors from Iran.[6]

Publications

  • Terrorismus und Spionage. Einschätzungen des Generalbundesanwalts. Übersee-Club, Hamburg 1991.
  • Das Erbe des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit (MfS). Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer, Speyer 1993.
  • Kampf um die Pressefreiheit. Chronologie eines Skandals. Die Verfassungsbeschwerde der Wochenzeitung 'Junge Freiheit' wegen Verletzung der Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit durch Verfassungsschutzberichte des Landes NRW. Reihe Dokumentation, Bde. 5-7, Edition JF, Berlin 2003–2004: ISBN 3-929886-15-4, ISBN 3-929886-17-0, ISBN 3-929886-18-9

References

  1. ^ "Vertikaler Schnitt" (in German). Spiegel Online. 1991-07-22. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  2. ^ "Falsches Schwein" (in German). Spiegel Online. 1993-09-27. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  3. ^ "Linker Firlefanz" (in German). Spiegel Online. 1994-10-31. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  4. ^ https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fed-Lit-Winter-2018-v3-pdf.pdf Fed Lit 2018, page 1
  5. ^ https://www.rudaw.net/english/world/220220141 Award Honors German Prosecutors in Landmark Mykonos Case Against Iran
  6. ^ Hakakian, Roya (2011). Assassins of the Turquoise Palace. Grove Press.
Legal offices
Preceded by Attorney General of Germany
1990–1993 		Succeeded by

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