The testimony of Uwe Mundlos‘ father continued today. At the end of his testimony, victim’s counsel Alexander Hoffmann, also on behalf of co-counsel Clemm, Dr. Elberling, Fresenius, Ilius, Kuhn, Lex, Lunnebach, Scharmer, Stolle, van der Behrens, made the following statement in court:

The testimony of witness Dr. Mundlos was shaped above all by his attempts to free his son of all responsibility for the crimes committed by the NSU. Dr. Mundlos has apparently formed a conception of events according to which his son appears only as innocent victim of misguided police investigations, tempted by informers for the secret service, who only out of friendship accompanied Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe underground.

The witness Dr. Mundlos is unable to reflect on his own failures in raising his son, on his inability to adequately counter his son’s Nazi ideology, on his inner refusal to accept that he has underestimated the danger emanating from his son’s ideology and his son personally. By talking about twelve victims of the NSU, and thus apparently including his son and Uwe Böhnhardt in that count, he reveals that he has lost his grip on reality and that he refuses to accept the facts. This may be taken as an understandable reaction of a broken-hearted father who has lost his son in more than one sense. But it needs to be taken into account in evaluating his testimony.

However, this evaluation should not lead the court to mark off his testimony as irrelevant in all its parts. The observances, as related by the witness, of the activities of the domestic secret service and its officers are relevant for this trial. The influence of paid informers, the founding of the “Thuringia Home Guard” by informer Brandt, the provision of explosives by informer Starke, the fact that several informers were in the direct vicinity of those supporting Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt after they had gone underground – all of these are facts which will have to be taken into account in evaluating the guilt of the accused.