Question juridique clé
Whether the Federal Public Prosecutor was competent to decide on provisional release during the preliminary investigation stage.
Solution extraite
No. The prosecutor lacked the required independence to decide on provisional release; the Federal Investigating Judge had to decide instead.
Motifs extraits
The court followed its recent precedent holding that, because the prosecutor may later file the indictment and support the prosecution at trial, it does not meet the independence required by the Constitution and the ECHR for such release decisions.