Almost two years after the verdict in the NSU trial against right-wing terrorist beate zschape and four co-defendants, the legal processing of the racially motivated murders and attacks enters the next phase.
The munich higher regional court (OLG) handed down its eagerly awaited verdict – exactly 3025 pages, as the court announced. After the delivery of the written grounds for the judgment, the parties who have lodged an appeal have one month in which to substantiate it. The federal court of justice in karlsruhe will then have to review the ruling.
Zschape had been accused of the murders and attacks of the neo-nazi terrorist cell "national socialist underground" on the 11th of july, at the end of the more than five-year-long mammoth trial. Sentenced to life imprisonment on july 2018. The four co-defendants also received prison or juvenile sentences.
The higher regional court under presiding judge manfred gotzl has now just met the deadline within which the written statement of reasons must be "submitted to the files" in accordance with the code of criminal procedure. The deadline expired on wednesday, 93 weeks after the verdict on 11 september. July 2018. If the court had let the deadline pass, the entire process would automatically have had to start from the beginning.
Zschape had lived underground for almost 14 years with her friends uwe mundlos and uwe bohnhardt. During this time, the mannerists murdered nine businessmen of turkish and greek origin and a policewoman in various cities. They committed explosive attacks with many injured and more than a dozen robberies. In the end, mundlos and bohnhardt took their own lives.
The court convicted zschape of being an accomplice to all of the NSU’s crimes, including ten murders. In addition, the court determined that the guilt was particularly serious – this means that early release from liability after 15 years is legally possible, but in practice it is virtually impossible. Only the order of subsequent preventive detention was waived by the court.
It is eagerly awaited, above all, how the court will derive and substantiate zschape’s role as a co-defendant in the written statement of the verdict. Because there is no proof that zschape was at any of the crime scenes. The prosecution, however, had attributed to her a significant role in the cover-up of the NSU trio and argued that zschape had "known everything, supported everything and in her own way helped to steer and bring about everything". This argumentation was followed by the court with its ruling on 11. July 2018 – and sentenced zschape as an accessory after the fact to the maximum penalty.
Zschape’s two defense teams, on the other hand, had demanded that their client be acquitted of all murders and assaults: she was not an accomplice, a murderer or an assassin. Zschape had claimed in written statements that she had only learned about the murders and attacks of her friends after the fact.
It has been clear for a long time that the federal supreme court will have to review the verdict: all of the defendants and their defense attorneys as well as the federal public prosecutor’s office have filed an appeal, but the latter only with regard to the verdict against the co-defendant andre E. Also the co-defendant carsten S. Had initially appealed, but later withdrew – the verdict against him is valid.
Ralf wohlleben was sentenced to ten years in prison as the NSU trio’s weapons procurer – the court found him guilty of nine counts of aiding and abetting murder. The co-defendant holger G. Was sentenced to three years in prison for aiding a terrorist organization. Carsten S. Received three-year juvenile sentence for aiding and abetting murder in nine cases. In the case of the co-defendant andre E. With two and a half years imprisonment for supporting a terrorist organization, the higher regional court remained far below the demand of the prosecution, which had pleaded aiding and abetting attempted murder.
Zschape had been transferred from munich-stadelheim to the chemnitz correctional facility in february 2019. Carsten S., who withdrew his appeal, had already begun his sentence. The others are at large. The investigative detention of E. Had ended the court with the verdict. Wohlleben was released a short time later, after more than six years in custody. The judges no longer saw any danger that wohlleben could flee and thus stay away from further proceedings. G. Was at liberty anyway. All this could change again when the verdict is completely legally binding one day. However, it is not yet clear how long it will take for the federal supreme court to review the verdict.
The federal supreme court reviews the verdict exclusively for formal or substantive legal errors and does not clarify the matter further. So, for example, no witnesses will be heard. If the verdict stands up to scrutiny, it will become legally binding. If the appeal is successful, the judges will overturn the verdict in whole or in part. In the most extreme case, the entire process had to be repeated again.
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