Still no closing statements

Today, the court again held only a short trial session. The closing statements by victims and their counsel could still not begin. The court first denied the motion for evidence concerning the landlord of the garage in Jena (see the report of 25 October 2017) as it held that the facts mentioned therein, if found, would not have an influence on its decision.

The trial was then again concerned with the information given to Zschäpe by the court a few weeks ago concerning the legal qualification of the charges. This concerned inter alia the question whether each case of Zschäpe’s involvement in the NSU’s individual crimes of murder and robbery also constituted one charge of membership in a terrorist organization, or whether they formed, in that regard, one continuous crime of membership – a rather formal question which will not influence the sentence passed out in the end. The defense is now using this aspect also to delay the trial – Zschäpe defense counsel had moved for further information on these issues during the last trial week, when given that information today, they stated that they wished to “react”, but were unable to do so before next week. The presiding judge ended the trial session shortly after 11 am.

The trial will continue next Wednesday, 15 November 2017.