On earlier interrogations of Holger Gerlach

This morning was devoted to the testimony of prosecutor Dr. Moldenhauer of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. He testified on earlier interrogations of accused Holger Gerlach before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice. Gerlach had provided “the Three” with several identity papers which were then used to rent mobile home for the NSU’s murders and bank robberies. Inter alia, Gerlach had provided, in 2011, a passport in his name and with a picture in which he closely resembled Uwe Böhnhardt, having changed his apperance before taking the photo.

In his interrogation, Gerlach had stated that he did not then think that there was an arrest warrant against “the Three” – he had read in a newspaper that the crimes they were originally accused of were time-barred by then. What’s more, “the Three” had told him that they owned a computer store, and they had arrived to meetings in new and expensive cars.

If Gerlach assumes that “the Three” were not subject to arrest warrants and that they had enough money, it must have been clear to him that they would use his identity papers to commit crimes based on ideology. This is all the more so given that he had, as he related to the witness, already told them ten years earlier that one could not “rescue the world with five people.”

As far as his interrogation concerned the delivery to “the Three” of a pistol he had been given by Wohlleben, Gerlach had tried to talk his way out by claiming that he had not looked into the bag containing that pistol and/or that he had not seen any way to safely “get rid” of the weapon without endangering others.

Somewhat surprisingly, the defence of accused Eminger moved to be allowed to remain absent on all trial days not concerning crimes Eminger is directly charged with. Given that all crimes concerned here were committed by a terrorist organization which Eminger is charged with supporting, this motion does not seem destined for success.

At the end of the trial day, two police officers testified on the initial discovery of the body of Enver Şimşek, who had been shot dead in his flower van.