Witnesses for the Wohlleben defense – no exculpatory statements in sight.

Today the court heard the first two of the witnesses connected to “Blood & Honour” Saxony whose testimony has been requested by the Wohlleben defense in its 13 January 2015 motions. The defense aims to prove that it was only under the influence of “B&H” Saxony that Zschäpe, Böhnhardt and Mundlos were radicalized into starting the NSU and that Wohlleben had no contacts to “B&H” Saxony and thus did not play a central role among NSU supporters.
Of course, even if all that were to be proven true, the evidence already heard so far suffices to convict Wohlleben of the charges against him because he did in fact provide the NSU with the murder weapon. But even leaving that all aside, the two witnesses heard today did not actually confirm these defense claims, quite to the contrary:

The first witness is the owner of a facebook profile which amply demonstrates his political leanings, containing the slogan “Saufen macht frei” or “drinking makes one free”, a “wordplay” on the “Arbeit macht frei” or “work makes one free” placed at the entry gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The witness stated that he had first met Zschäpe in the 1990s and that he had met her several times in Chemnitz. This was pretty much the extent of the factual statements to be heard from him as, like other Nazis witnesses before him, he feigned extensive memory gaps. He will have to appear once more as the minutes of two police interviews with him have not yet been provided for the case file.

The second witness, who had already left the Nazi scene in 1994, stated that after the withdrawal of the Red Army from Eastern Germany, it was quite easy to buy guns; he himself had taken part in target practice sessions. He had also been involved, together with several “B&H” members, in an attempted attack by about 250 persons on a refugee home, an attack during which Molotov cocktails were thrown. What the witness did not relate, however, was anything which could support the factual claims by the Wohlleben defense.