No doubts concerning the guilt of Ralf Wohlleben

Today, the court refused the challenge for alleged bias brought by the Wohlleben defence. Its decision underscores what the decision by presiding judge Götzl and his colleagues on the continued detention of Wohlleben already showed: the three judges who had to decide on the challenge found that there was no bias if the court, after a preliminary examination of the evidence presented so far, found that there was no reason to doubt the guilt of Wohlleben, and if the court stated so in its decision. Now, the court of course had no doubts that Wohlleben, when procuring the Ceska for “the Three”, did so in the knowledge that it would be used to commit murders. And if this is the case for Wohlleben, there can be even less doubt that Zschäpe also acted with the same intent.

Wohlleben’s wife, who had been called as a witness, refused to testify.

The court then heard another police officer who had questioned Blood and Honour-activist and informer Starke. A concluding evaluation of Starke’s testimony will be possible after the final police officer has testified on 30 July.

The final witness today was a police detective from the political crimes unit of the Dortmund police who had questioned a witness to the Dortmund murder. That witness had, in her somewhat confusing statement, pointed to Nazis as possible suspects. However, since she had described them as “Nazis or junkies” and since nobody, including the officer who testified today, went into the details on this point, her statement was not followed up on. The detective testifying today, whose usual tasks are in “the area of Turks/Kurds”, thus proved less than helpful.