The data scandal at the Zurich Ministry of Justice has political consequences. After hearing Justice Director Jacqueline Fehr (59), the Company Audit Committee (GPK) decided on Thursday to launch an investigation.
Blick announced last week that hard drives with partly unencrypted, highly sensitive data had fallen into the hands of a previously convicted man from the Zurich environment. This includes psychiatric reports, mobile telephone numbers of police officers and residential addresses of prosecutors. This is because the authority improperly disposed of computers that were years old. The Department of Justice later narrowed down the “data security incident” to the period from 2006 to 2012.
GPK was surprised by the scale of the scandal
The current Director of Justice, Fehr, has only been in office since 2015. Still, she is criticized for the incident. The reason: Although the SP government council member has been aware since the end of 2020 and has had administrative investigations done into the hard drive case, she never even informed the public about the basics.
However, the GPK had been informed “in detail”, the Ministry of Justice had emphasized to Blick. The Commission, which is responsible for overseeing the administration of the canton, now contradicts this. At the beginning of March 2021, she was informed about an ongoing administrative investigation into data misuse, which was related to an ongoing criminal trial, according to the GPK. But: “Until recently, the GPK had no knowledge of the scope of the incident or the completion of the administrative investigation and its results.”
Fehr should have informed proactively
The GPK therefore rebukes Fehr. The Director of Justice was told that “given the abuses identified in the investigation, the Commission should have been proactively informed of the results”.
In the investigation, the GPK now wants to address the question of whether the Ministry of Justice handled the data security incident correctly. In this context, it is also necessary to examine “whether and how the recommendations of the administrative inquiry have been implemented” and whether the handling of data and information in the judiciary today meets the legal requirements.
A subcommittee was set up, which now even more precisely defines the purpose and procedure of the investigation.
The GPK of the national parliament also announced last week that it would investigate the judicial scandal in Zurich. Chairman Alfred Heer (61) confirms this to Blick.