A/HRC/7/3/Add.1 page 108 Para Country Date Type Mandate Allegations transmitted Government response mandatory requirement within the definition of this criminal offence, the victim must have been exposed to the danger of being persecuted for political reasons. Having regard to Article 16a (1) of the Basic Law, the Federal Public Prosecutor General takes the legal view that political grounds within the meaning of section 234a of the Criminal Code include racial, religious or philosophical grounds, and beyond these, association with a political party or group. The persecution must therefore involve one of these elements. A contravention of the rule of law alone, however, does not necessarily turn persecution into political persecution within the meaning of this penal provision. The Federal Public Prosecutor General therefore decided on 21 December 2006 to refrain from initiating investigation proceedings, because no sufficient factual indications were apparent for any of these criminal offences, which, according to the definitive statutory regulation, can give rise to the Federal Public Prosecutor General having jurisdiction to prosecute. In particular, the Federal Public Prosecutor General did not see sufficient indications for the criminal offence of abduction according to section 234a of the Criminal Code. This decision of the Federal Public Prosecutor General did not mean that the examination of the criminal information process has been concluded. Rather, it meant only that jurisdiction over the criminal persecution remains with the Stuttgart Public Prosecution Office which had the task of examining the facts of the case with respect to other criminal offences such as unlawful