3. With the Chief Public Prosecutor in Cologne (from the occupied French territories—with the exception of northern France) 177 cases with a total of 331 accused.
The Reich Minister has ordered the following changes to be made in the present procedure:
1. The Special Courts in Kiel, Essen, Cologne, and Berlin with exclusive competence hitherto, are to some extent to be replaced by the People’s Court.
2. The present procedure, according to which the accused are kept in custody indefinitely by the judiciary authorities when an indictment was either impossible or not answering the purpose, is to be abolished.
Furthermore, the Reich Minister wishes the question of the competence for pardons settled in such a way that in cases which have been handed over to the common court authorities, these (not the authorities of the armed forces) shall make the decision for pardon.
To give consideration to these questions, a departmental meeting with the High Command of the Armed Forces Legal Division and Counterintelligence is to be held on 2 October 1942.
Berlin, 26 September 1942
[Typed] signed Dr. von Ammon
[Handwritten] for further action
[Initial] A [Ammon]