Another wasted trial day

The first witness today was the CEO of the Jena Local Mass Transit company, who once again reported that there was no small wooden hut at the tram stop in Jena-Winzerla. Of course, his statement will be without relevance as the victim of the attack has now reported that he had indeed been pushed into a wooden hut, but in a nearby allotment to which he had fled from the tram stop (see the report of yesterday). The Wohlleben defense pretended like nothing had changed, asking the witness for the names of tram drivers who had frequented the tram stop in 1998 to 2000. The victim and his friend, who had managed to flee and call the police, will testify in the week of 7 November.

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On likely attempts by the NSU to scout out a synagogue in Berlin, news on the attack in Jena-Winzerla, and on the Peggy K. case

The only witness today was a former police officer from Berlin who had been a guard posted in front of the synagogue in the Rykestraße in Berlin in 2000. He had stated in 2000 that he had observed Beate Zschäpe together with 2 men and another woman accompanied by two young children. They had sat in front of a restaurant directly next to the entrance to the synagogue, where they had consulted maps and made notes. Shortly thereafter, he had seen a wanted notice on TV and recognized the woman as Zschäpe and notified the police in Thuringia.
Before the witness had been summoned, presiding judge Götzl had asked Beate Zschäpe whether she had been in Berlin in May 2000. This question, by the way, had already been asked by victims’ counsel, but had at that time not been answered by the accused. Today, her counsel Grasel read out a statement confirming that Zschäpe had been in Berlin, but had not “scouted out” the synagogue, which in any event she did not know. Continue reading →