One of the most brazen witnesses so far: Mario Brehme

This morning, the court heard three witnesses on various topics: the first was a man from Chemnitz whose mother had lived in the house at the address Wolgograder Allee 76 in Chemnitz and who had come across Beate Zschäpe several times in the staircase. This was the house where the trio had lived shortly after having gone underground; the apartment had been provided by André Eminger. The witness related that his mother had complained about the new renters and had told him that they had sung Nazi songs and had thrown cigarette butts from the balcony. She had tried to talk to the woman, whom he identified as Beate Zschäpe in 2011, but had been verbally abused.

Next witness was a police officer from Thuringia who had written several reports on the development of the “Thuringia Home Guard” (THS) However, early in his testimony he revealed that he had simply summarized written reports by the secret service and the state security division of the criminal police and thus was able to report on anything he had seen or heard himself. He had also been involved in investigations against THS members, but was unable to answer any questions posed by victims’ counsel. Continue reading →