Further questioning of accused Carsten Schultze
After the questioning of accused Carsten Schultze on Tuesday had unearthed new information concerning at least one further NSU attack, but also concerning accused Wohlleben and the way Uwe Böhnhardt und Uwe Mundlos dealt with information concerning the attacks, the further questioning on 12 and 13 June 2013 did not lead to any concrete results. However, his refusal to answer questions posed by the Wohlleben defence led to some excitement. Schultze explained his refusal in quite emotional terms: the Wohlleben defence had demanded “equality of arms” from the court, now he demanded the same from them. He had “bared all”. He demanded that Wohlleben also testify fully, only then would he answer questions by Wohlleben’s defence.
To what extent Schultze has indeed “bared all” is still debatable after three days of questioning. It was apparently quite hard for him to detail having known about a bombing attack by Böhnhardt and Mundlos before he provided the Ceska pistol to them. Similary, it must have been hard to confess that the two already had access to firearm and thus did not need the silenced Ceska for bank robberies – after all, this made the character of the Ceska as a murder weapon all the more apparent.
However, when it comes to other issues Schultze clams up entirely. He claims not to have been a racist, notwithstanding that they had shouted “africa to the apes”. He claims not to have had a hostile attitude towards Turkish people. He admits to having been part of violent attacks on left-wingers (called “ticks” in the language of German Nazis), and in one case having seen Wohlleben kick one victim in the face repeatedly – but he leaves everybody in the dark about his motivations. He claims to have forgotten or blocked out all questions of ideology, all political discussions. When Schultze claims that there must probably have been some sort of theory concerning armed struggle, but that he does not remember any of it, only minutes after having described having bought and delivered a silenced murder weapon, it becomes evident that he is still holding back quite a lot.
Schultze’s questioning by victims’ counsel will continue on Tuesday, 18 June.