Once more on the witnesses from the criminal scene in Thuringia

The only witness today was a federal criminal police detective who had interviewed the three witnesses from the criminal scene in Thuringia. As all three witnesses have refused to testify in court, the court is now introducing their testimony given to the police. His testimony today did not lead to any relevant new facts, all three witnesses had also refused to answer at least some of the questions of the police, after all.

Zschäpe defense counsel Borchert brought a motion for access to the original case file as well as a suspension of the trial, arguing that he was unable to check whether the electronic copy of the case file he had been given is complete while the trial is ongoing. He will surely be granted access as requested, just as surely as he will not be granted a suspension.

The Wohlleben defense also brought two motions which will not have much of an influence on the trial. On the one hand they moved that an ethnopluralist propaganda text found on Wohllebens computer be read out in court. In that text, Wohlleben had started as his goal to protect “our” cultural against “further decay” but also to protect other peoples. This shows, so the defense claims, that he is actually pro aliens and therefore lacking the mens rea for murder when he provided the Ceska murder weapon to Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhard. The text in question is a text book example of fascist ethnopluralism, which claims to respect the cultures as long as they stay far away from Germany, while at the same time attacking people living here as a danger to German culture. This propaganda will not work in court.

The defense also requested that witness Tino Brandt be recalled to prove that it was Brandt and not Wohlleben who had given Carsten Schulze the money needed to buy the Ceska murder weapon. This issue had not come up at his last court appearance. Interestingly, Carsten Schulze himself asked for the floor and reminded the court that he had already stated in his very first police interview that it had been Wohlleben who had given him the money.

There will be no trial next week, the court will continue on 10 May 20016. It is to be expected that the court will again not get much done during that week.