On jail cell talks of witness and former informer Tino Brandt

First (expert) witness today was a gun export with the federal criminal police who had reconstructed the serial number of the Ceska murder weapon, which had been scratched out.

Next up was a man who had had prison conversations with “Thuringia Home Guard” leader Tino Brandt after Brandt had appeared in court as a witness, and who had reported on these conversations to the court.

According to the witness, Brandt had told him that he had feigned an illness in order to avoid having to testify, and had made fun of the trial and the court – in fact, the trial days on 12 and 12 February 2014, when he had first been scheduled to testify, had been canceled due to Brandt’s alleged illness. The witness further related that Brandt had told him of his plans to bring the NSU members back into the fold of the Thuringia Home Guard two years after they had gone underground, plans which the NSU members had not shared since that had had “better things to do.” Brandt had told him that he did not believe that his friend had something to do with “the whole thing”, but if they had, they would have been well justified.

The witness today seemed believable, he was secure in what he related, was able to explain his somewhat contradictory-seeming behavior vis-à-vis the court (inter alia, he had first sent the court a hand-written summary of his talks with Brandt, but had not given his name). However, it is of course quite possible that Brandt – who was far from believable in many parts of his statement in court – may have lied to the witness. Of course, the court will not make much of Brandt’s self-aggrandizing statements in the judgment anyway, only relying on those incriminating statements made to his contact officers which are also supported by other pieces of evidence.