„This decision reads like part of a final judgment“

Today the court again did not question any witnesses – the only witness who had been meant to testify today was unable to appear today and will now testify next week.

Victim counsel Yavuz Narin brought a motion that a Berlin police officer be heard as witness. The witness, who was part of the security detail guarding the synagogue in the Rykestraße in Berlin, had stated that he had seen Zschäpe, Mundlos and other persons scouting out the synagogue in May 2000. This would prove Zschäpe’s involvement in scouting out potential targets of NSU attacks already at an early stage, before the beginning of the series of murders – contrary to her statement, according to which she had only learned about the murders after the fact.

The court read out several long decisions rejecting motions for evidence that had been brought by the Wohlleben defense. The defense made a motion for reconsideration, which defense counsel Klemke rather resignedly summed up as follows: “this decision reads like part of a final judgment”.

The court has yet to decide about the motion to consider as evidence a letter sent by Zschäpe to another imprisoned neo-Nazi (see the report of 14 September 2016), in fact, the motion itself has not even been fully read out until now. The presiding judge did announce, however, that the court was planning to take into account as evidence, besides the letter and Zschäpe’s motions for dismissal of her assigned counsel, further documents including a criminal complaint brought by Zschäpe against her counsel Heer, Stahl and Sturm in July of 2015.
The trial day next Tuesday has been cancelled, the trial will continue on Wednesday, 12 October 2016.