Short trial day today – trial to continue on 8 or 13 March.

Today the court asked for comments by parties on the defense motions of yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, prosecutor Greger moved that the motion for evidence brought by the Wohlleben defense be rejected, and did not pull any punches: there was no call to hear Rosemann’s testimony as “the court is not called upon to deal with factual claims that have clearly been simply invented” by the moving party. There is no need to say more on this motion, which is very likely to be rejected by the court.

As to the motion by Zschäpe counsel Heer, Stahl and Sturm to be relieved as assigned counsel, the prosecution once more moved that it be rejected. Finally, as to the decision to move the question of forfeiture of assets to separate proceedings, they proposed that this simply be amended so as to also include the accused Schultze.

The court did not decide on any of the motions today. The presiding judge announced that if the court was to summon the witness, it would do so for 8 March; if not, the court was planning to continue on 13 March with the first closing statements of the Zschäpe defense. It remains to be seen whether this plan will come true – there is a danger that the Wohlleben defense will, after the rejection of their motion for evidence, bring another challenge for alleged bias against the judges, which would be just as meritless as the motion for evidence, but which would lead to further delays.