Waiting for the accused

The challenge brought by the Wohlleben defense for alleged bias was rejected yesterday – as was to be expected. The court was thus free to continue the trial today – and continued to kill time.

In the morning, it heard two federal police detectives who detailed notes of the NSU’s scouting out potential targets in several cities. Of course, their testimony did not lead to more detailed findings than simply looking at the notes themselves would have – but it did take 1 1/2 hours so that the court could break for lunch afterwards.

After the lunch break, the court listened to the prosecution’s statement concerning motions for evidence brought by victims’ counsel on 28 October 2015 (the gist of that statement: reject (almost) all of them, it is of no relevance to our proceedings if others surrounding the NSU maybe built up other terrorist groups), rejected the motion brought by Zschäpe’s assigned counsel on 10 November 2015 to be relieved, gave a very short notice on what the court had known about alleged victim “Meral Keskin” and refused a more detailed statement. Having finished a hard day’s work, the court concluded the trial day at 1:51 pm.

Given the list of witnesses for the next weeks, it seems likely that the court will continue conducting such a half-hearted trial until 8 December 2015, the date for which Zschäpe’s statement has been announced. It seems that the court has high hopes for this statement. Given the evidence so far, which has fully confirmed the indictment, this is surprising. The court is in danger of furthering Zschäpe’s self-perception as the person who decides on the future course of the trial against her.