Court Finds Merkel Ally Guilty Of Manslaughter

The woman later died.

An Austrian court on Tuesday found a German state premier and ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel guilty of involuntary manslaughter for his role in a fatal ski accident and fined him 33,000 euros ($42,000).

The conviction of Dieter Althaus, conservative premier of Thuringia, could damage his chances of re-election in an Aug. 30 vote in the eastern state which takes place only weeks before Germany's federal election.

A popular Christian Democrat (CDU) politician and one of Merkel's closest allies in the former communist eastern part of the country, Althaus has barely been seen in public since the accident, in which he was severely injured.

"He's the best-known politician in Thuringia and he's pretty well liked," said Gerd Langguth, a political scientist at Bonn University and biographer of Merkel. "He is the only person who can decide whether he wants to stand down as CDU candidate."

Althaus, 50, collided with a woman on a ski slope in Austria's Styria region on New Year's Day. The woman, 41-year-old Beata Christandl, later died.

Althaus and Christandl had been descending separate slopes but reenactments suggest the German premier left his piste briefly, skiing several metres uphill into the downward path of the woman, a Slovak who lived in the United States.

His doctors have said that he should make a recovery in time to run in the state he has ruled since 2003.

Christoph Matschie, head of the rival Social Democrats (SPD) in Thuringia, said Althaus needed to settle the issue now.

"It's important for him to give us clarity on this, because Thuringia needs this clarity," he told Reuters Television.

HIGH-PROFILE

Merkel's CDU, which is well ahead of the SPD in national polls, has no high-profile alternatives to Althaus in the state and risks losing power to a leftist coalition without him as their candidate.

Mike Mohring, CDU parliamentary leader in Thuringia, said he expected the party to nominate Althaus later this month to front the election drive. Provided Althaus was fit by the summer, he would be more than capable of steering the party home, he added.

Langguth said it was too early to say whether voters would punish Althaus for the conviction by the court in Irdning.

"You can't tell what impact it will have on the population, because there are many people who see it as tragic and take the view that they wouldn't want to be in his skin," he said.

Court spokeswoman Sabine Anzenberger said Althaus's lawyers were not planning to appeal the decision. The prosecutor has not yet decided whether to appeal the sentence and has three days to decide whether to do so, she added.

On top of the fine, Althaus will have to pay 5,000 euros in compensation to Christandl's widower, the court said.

In a statement issued after the ruling, Althaus said he was facing up to his responsibility for the accident, but added that he could not remember anything about it.

"What's important to me is that the material compensation for those Beata Christandl left behind is not delayed," he said. "I hope the legal conclusion of the skiing accident serves her dependents' interests and upholds Mrs Christandl's dignity."