Allowed or prohibited?

Legal dispute over pepper spray on a keychain

Police had filed a complaint regarding this pepper spray.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/zVg und Daniel Scharinger)

Pepper sprays have been permitted since 1996. However, because the one in question allegedly looked like a flashlight, a district judge convicted a Viennese man with no prior record under the Weapons Act. His attorney, Harald Schuster, challenged the ruling. Successfully.

A man causes an accident on his motorcycle in Vienna. During a traffic stop, the police briefly confiscate his vehicle keys. What the man hadn’t anticipated was the criminal complaint that landed in his mailbox shortly thereafter.

Appeal against the first-instance ruling
“I thought I was in the wrong movie,” he recalls. The criminal charge: he had carried a prohibited weapon on his keychain. Specifically, a pepper spray, which has actually been permitted as a non-lethal weapon since 1996. However, because the pepper spray keychain was disguised as a flashlight, it was classified as a prohibited weapon.

§ 17 Weapons Act

According to § 17 of the Weapons Act, it is prohibited, among other things, to carry weapons whose shape is suitable for mimicking another object. Nor may they be disguised as objects of daily use. 

A judge at the Vienna Mitte District Court actually sentenced the pepper spray owner to a fine of 40 daily rates: “The shape of the pepper spray is suitable for disguising it as a flashlight,” argued Judge Rat.

Are women who protect themselves being criminalized?
Harald Schuster, the convicted man’s attorney, refused to accept this and has now successfully challenged the ruling. At the appeal hearing at the Vienna Regional Court, he stated: “The legislature needs to think this through. Pepper spray is primarily intended to protect women. Does it want to criminalize every woman who carries pepper spray that doesn’t have ‘I am pepper spray’ written on it in large, neon letters?” he argued.

Attorney Harald Schuster(Bild: Pfefferspray)

Apart from the fact that this model, of which there are thousands in circulation, is not disguised as a flashlight. Especially since the device has no light head. An expert opinion confirms this: “The absence of an active or inactive light source for the sake of appearances rules out the possibility of it being disguised as a flashlight,” the detailed report states.

Clear acquittal in the trial
After a brief deliberation, Judge Georg Olschak acquits the Viennese man in the trial. “I agree with your defense attorney’s arguments. Why shouldn’t women coming home at night be allowed to carry such a handy pepper spray with them? From the front, you can clearly see that it is not a flashlight,” he says. Much to the relief of the defendant, who has no prior convictions.