The federal criminal police again fail to contribute to clearing up the facts

Today the trial again lasted less than two hours, ending shortly after 11 am.

The first witness was a woman who had been seen with Blood and Honour activist Jan Werner in Berlin in June 2000 when the Sexan domestic secret service trailed Werner and who, based on her appearance, could have been the woman accompanying Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt when they scouted out the synagogue in Berlin in May 2000 (see the report of 30 November 2016).

She denied any knowledge of that episode, and even if her denials did not come across as very convincing, there was no way to effectively challenge it: the secret service had only given very few details, and the federal criminal police had not even interviewed her as a witness. Thus another hint towards a possible contact person or supporter of the NSU is likely to come to naught.  Continue reading →

Zschäpe defense continues to stall – court helps them along

The first topic today was the motion for evidence, announced several times by the Zschäpe defense, concerning her behavior in detention. Counsel Grasel surprised everyone by announcing that the motion was still not finished and pronouncing himself unable to promise whether it would be finished this week. Now, the court has summoned expert witness Prof. Saß for tomorrow and Thursday so that he can comment on the testimony of the witness (likely stating that it does not change his conclusion in any way, see the report of 14/15 February 2017).

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