On the NSU’s arsenal of weapons

As was to be expected, the challenges for alleged bias brought by the defense last week were declared without merit since a „less than felicitous phrasing“ in the decision of last Thursday does not prove the existence of bias.

The court heard another gun expert from the federal criminal police, who presented all guns found by the police – two machine pistols, two pumpguns, more than a dozen pistols and revolvers – and explained their functioning.

Finally, the court again rejected motions for evidence brought by victims’ counsel. Thus it rejected the motion to view the videos “Kriegsberichter” of the international “Blood & Honour” movement, containing graphic incitements to murder (see the report of 22 October 2015) – according to the court, the content of these videos, which circulated within the neo-Nazi scene including that in Jena, is without relevance to the judgment of the court. The court also rejected the motion concerning contacts between accused Holger Gerlach and neo-Nazi multi-functionary Heise (see the report of 28 October 2015), claiming that evidence of Gerlach being deeply [verankert] in the militant neo-Nazi scene until at least 2002 was irrelevant for the motive concerning the crimes he is accused of, which began in 2004.

These decisions filled with verbal acrobatics show once more that the court is only looking to technically confirm the indictment by the federal prosecutor, which is already much too narrow – it is not at all interested in clearing up anything beyond these issues.