Closing statement of counsel Borchert continues

Today Zschäpe’s defense counsel Borchert continued his closing statement. Like yesterday, this mostly consisted of subdividing the prosecution’s consideration of evidence into tiny pieces, misinterpreting these in a classical strawman manner and “refuting” them with sophistries.

One example from the beginning of his statement which can serve as an example for the whole thing: contrary to the prosecution, Borchert claimed, the NSU cannot have considered the German state its enemy – after all, its goal had been to force “foreign people” to leave that state! To answer in Borchert’s own words: “Further comment on this argument is surely not needed.”

This argumentative failure, many parts of which were closer to a Chewbacca defense than an actual consideration of the evidence taken in court (in Borchert’s absence), was not received well by Zschäpe’s “old” counsel, above all Wolfgang Sturm, as was clearly visible in their facial expressions and body language.

The trial will continue tomorrow with the closing statement of Borchert’s colleague Grasel.