The first lawsuit concerns the fairly prominent journalist Hannes Schopf (72), who died a few days after being infected on a skiing holiday in Ischgl.
The case is the first of a total of 15 civil lawsuits to be brought before the court, in which the Austrian state is accused of not responding quickly enough to reports of corona infection in the popular ski town, also called “Alps Ibiza”, at the start of the corona eruption in March last year.
Schopp’s wife, Sieglinde Schopf, said in an interview with the news agency AFP earlier this year that “her whole world fell apart” when her husband passed away.
She herself is said to have encouraged him to go on a ski holiday.
– I can not forgive myself, because in the end I sent him to death.
view more
–
– The lies cost lives
The wife and family are now demanding 100,000 euros – about one million Norwegian kroner – in compensation from the Austrian state.
Schopp’s widow and the consumer organization VSV are behind the lawsuit.
The couple’s son, Ulrich Schopf, appeared in court on Friday on behalf of the mother, when it became too difficult for her emotionally, the son tells the Austrian ORF.
He said that the family does not take the case to court because of the money, but because of justice, and that they plan to donate the money to charity if they should win.
When Dagbladet visited the VSV office in Vienna in March this year, they could tell that Schopp’s case had received a lot of attention in Austria.
According to VSV, he was probably infected with one of them the crowded buses out of Ischgl, when the ski resort was abruptly evacuated and went into lockdown on March 13, 2020. Sebastian Reinfeldt, who has been investigating what happened in Ischgl on behalf of VSV, said that people stood upright like herring in a barrel on the buses for several hours.
SURPRISED: Leader Peter Kolba of the Austrian consumer association VSV thinks it is surprising that the state can not admit its mistakes. Photo: Marthe S. Lien / Dagbladet
view more
– Here we demand compensation on behalf of the wife and family for the shock caused by the death and the expenses for the funeral, VSV leader Peter Kolba told Dagbladet.
According to VSV, 32 people died after being infected in the small Austrian village in March last year.
– They lied, and the lies cost lives. People died, Sebastian Reinfeldt told Dagbladet in March.
– The lies cost lives
52 Norwegians
In addition to the 15 civil cases, the organization is also leading a mass lawsuit on behalf of 1,000 victims of the Ischgl infection.
– We have 56 Norwegian victims who are involved in this, Kolba told Dagbladet in March.
Too many Norwegian ski tourists on winter vacation brought the virus back from this area, which gave a head start to the corona pandemic in Norway. At the end of March, the National Institute of Public Health was able to trace over 600 cases of infection in Norway back to Austria.
view more
–
Dagbladet has previously talked to corona-infected Norwegians who visited Ischgl and Kitzloch in March last year, and who described the situation in the alpine village as “business as usual”.
Worldwide, there are 11,000 cases of infection that can be traced back to the outbreak in Ischgl, according to VSV.
– The ideal site for the virus
More alerts
Austrian authorities are accused of reacting too late to the reports of infection, which started ticking in March 2020. As early as March 4, 2020, an e-mail from the health authorities in Iceland is sent to the Austrian Ministry of Health, after 14 Icelandic tourists return home from ski holiday in Ischgl with corona infection.
The Icelandic authorities also report cases of infection through the European Early Warning System (EWS).
SHOCKED: Over the past year, Sebastian Reinfeldt has taken a closer look at what went wrong in Ischgl at the start of the corona outbreak last year. Photo: Marthe S. Lien / Dagbladet
view more
An e-mail will also be sent from Iceland on the evening of 5 March with an overview of which hotels in Ischgl the infected tourists had stayed at. There is also an unofficial warning from an Icelandic tourist guide, who has recently been to Ischgl with a travel companion, and who warns that people in the group are infected, VSV has previously told Dagbladet.
However, it is not until March 13 that the ski resort chooses to go into lockdown and within hours empty Ischgl for tourists.
They (the authorities, editor’s note) had information from three sources, who basically said the same thing. From March 5, they knew about the infections that were going on, and there was no reason to doubt what was said. They knew, and they ignored it. I did not expect these obvious lies, Reinfeldt told Dagbladet.
The tourists fled in panic
Rejects the accusations
In Austria, both local and federal authorities have always insisted that they do everything they can to deal with the situation.
– When it was confirmed that there were infections in Ischgl, the authorities immediately took the initiative for, among other things, extensive testing or local closures, Governor Günther Platter in the Tyrol region, where Ischgl is located, previously told Dagbladet.
– Any infection with this insidious virus is regrettable. No one in Ischgl or Tyrol wanted to hurt anyone. In this pandemic, the whole world has had to deal with clusters and pockets of infection. I’m sorry the virus came to Ischgl and infected many there. But no single village can be held responsible for a worldwide pandemic.
–
