The political criminal police in Jena: “he is here to makes sure nothing happens to us.” And: racist motion by the Wohlleben defense

The trial day began with the testimony of another police officer from Jena, asked to testify on accused Wohlleben’s ideology as well as activities by Wohlleben and the Nazi-“comradeship Jena” concerning “foreigners”. Again, the officer was unable to report anything important – very few questions by victims’ counsel were enough to show why he and his colleagues in Jena only had knowledge “assaults left wing – right ring and propaganda offences”: Asked whether he had any knowledge of bands at the concerts organized by Wohlleben performing songs with racist lyrics, the witness answered that he had not. Further asked whether the lyrics had been checked for illegal content, he replied that this had “not been usual back then”. Small wonder that Wohlleben had introduced the officer to the then-chairman of Nazi party NPD by saying “he is here to make sure nothing happens to us”. In a way, this is now repeating itself in the trial – the officers from Jena show themselves on the one hand attempting to deny any responsibility for the NSU arising out of the “comradeship Jena” they had supposedly been watching. On the other hand, there seems to have been (and to still be) no interest in combating the Nazis and their political activities.

The court then planned to continue the questioning of expert witness Prof. Saß. Zschäpe’s assigned counsel first tried to get Saß to hand over all his notes of the trial days he had visited. As Saß had not brought these notes (some 700 pages) with him to Munich, they stated that they had no further questions at the moment. The presiding judge announced that he will ask further questions tomorrow. The defense protested, asking that their questioning continue without interruptions once Saß had brought his notes. This issue will continue to be discussed tomorrow.

Further questions were then asked of expert witness Prof. Leygraf, who tried his best to make the Wohlleben defense understand why he continues to see significant reasons for trying accused Schultze as a minor.

At the end of the trial day, counsel Klemke, on behalf of the Wohlleben defense, brought a motion for an expert opinion by a demographer which aims to show that “the German Volk in its current identity will, in 2050, be a minority vis-à-vis non-Germans”. A large group of victims counsel left the courtroom in protest over this motion, which shows the Wohlleben defense propagating the ideology of Wohlleben and the German Nazi scene. We are documenting a press release by several victims’ counsel concerning this motion.