CURIA - Documents 6 of 11 https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?docid=753... a. everyone has the right to a nationality b. statelessness shall be avoided; c. no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality; …’. 20 Article 7 of that convention is worded as follows: ‘1. A State Party may not provide in its internal law for the loss of its nationality ex lege or at the initiative of the State Party except in the following cases: (a) voluntary acquisition of another nationality; (b) acquisition of the nationality of the State Party by means of fraudulent conduct, false information or concealment of any relevant fact attributable to the applicant; … 3. A State Party may not provide in its internal law for the loss of its nationality under paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article if the person concerned would thereby become stateless, with the exception of the cases mentioned in paragraph 1, subparagraph b, of this article.’ 21 Article 9 of the European Convention on nationality provides that each State Party is to facilitate, in the cases and conditions provided for by its internal law, the recovery of its nationality by former nationals who are lawfully and habitually resident in its territory. The case in the main proceedings and the questions referred for a preliminary ruling 22 The applicant in the main proceedings was born at Graz (Austria) and was originally, by birth, a national of the Republic of Austria. 23 In 1995 he transferred his residence to Munich (Germany), after being heard by the Landesgericht für Strafsachen Graz (criminal court of Graz) in an investigation concerning him opened on account of suspected serious fraud on an occupational basis in the exercise of his profession, which he denies. 24 In February 1997 the Landesgericht für Strafsachen Graz issued a national warrant for the arrest of the applicant in the main proceedings. 25 Dr Rottmann applied for German nationality in February 1998. During the naturalisation procedure he failed to mention the proceedings against him in Austria. The naturalisation document, dated 25 January 1999, was issued to him on 5 February 1999. 26 The naturalisation in Germany of the applicant in the main proceedings had the effect, in accordance with Austrian law, of causing him to lose his Austrian nationality. 27 In August 1999 the city of Munich was informed by the muncipal authorities of Graz that a warrant for Dr Rottmann’s arrest had been issued in Graz. Furthermore, in September 1999 the Austrian public prosecutor’s office informed the city of Munich, inter alia, that the applicant in the main proceedings had already been questioned as an accused person before the Landesgericht für Strafsachen Graz in July 1995. 28 In the light of those circumstances, and after hearing the applicant, by decision of 4 July 2000 the Freistaat Bayern withdrew the naturalisation with retroactive effect, on the grounds that the 26/05/2021, 10:03