No trial on Tuesday, 20 March.

The trial day set for next Tuesday has been canceled “as a second challenge for alleged bias has been brought.”

The trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday, 21 March 2018.

Wohlleben defense brings challenge for alleged bias – trial to continue Tuesday, 20 March 2018

As announced yesterday, the Wohlleben defense today brought a challenge against all members of the bench for alleged bias, based on the court’s decision rejecting their flimsy motion for evidence. This challenge will again be entirely unsuccessful, but as usual it will take some time for the court to deal with it. The presiding judge cancelled the trial day tomorrow and announced that the trial will continue next Tuesday, 20 March 2018. Whether this time will suffice, or whether additional trial days next week will also be canceled, remains to be seen.

Zschäpe defense counsel Heer, Stahl and Sturm, whose motion for release as assigned counsel had also been rejected yesterday, made no further comments on the issue today.

Defense motions rejected – defence announces challenge for alleged bias.

Today the court rejected all defense motion of last trial week. This includes the motion by Zschäpe defense counsel Heer, Stahl and Sturm to be relieved as assigned counsel, as well as the motion for evidence brought by the Wohlleben defense. In rejecting the latter, the court did not mince its words, finding that it had been brought “without any factual or argumentative basis” and aimed only at delaying the trial. The court also rejected another motion by the Wohlleben defense, announced last week and brought today, to incorporate certain files of the parliamentary inquiry commission in Baden-Württemberg into the case file.

The Wohlleben defense reacted by announcing a challenge against all judges for alleged bias and were given until 11:30 AM tomorrow to formulate that challenge. Accordingly, Zschäpe defense counsel Grasel and Borchert will not begin their closing statements tomorrow, the court will instead interrupt the trial until next week in order to decide on the challenge.

Trial will continue on 13 March

Today the court has canceled the trial day on Thursday. This likely means that it will reject the motion for evidence brought by the Wohlleben defense. The trial continues on Tuesday, 13 March.

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. Continue reading →

More meritless motions by the defense likely to lead to further delays.

Today the court first read out two documents concerning the passports which Holger Gerlach had provided to Böhnhardt, Mundlos and Zschäpe.

The court then decided to consider the question of the forfeiture of money likely deriving from bank robberies in a separate procedure: Deciding on this question in the judgment would lead to further delays as a decision on the money found in the Frühlingsstraße apartment and the caravan in Eisenach would affect not only Zschäpe, but also Böhnhardt and Mundlos and their heirs and as the latter would thus have to be heard. A decision on the money which, according to the indictment, had been given to Wohlleben and Gerlach and on the money found in the possession of André Eminger, meanwhile, also concerns Zschäpe and thus could only be reached after the first decision. The court will now decide on these questions in written proceedings separate from the trial and judgment. Continue reading →

No trial days this week

Today, the court had planned to decide the procedural question whether the question of forfeiture of moneys likely arising from the robberies will be decided in the judgment or via a separate procedure.

However, even this very minor question could not be decided today – instead parties were told that all trial days this week are cancelled due to illness of Zschäpe’s defense counsel Grasel.

The trial will continue on 27 February 2018.

Moving closing statements and somewhat arduous attempts to plan the defense statements

It would have been nice if the last trial day before the Winter break had consisted only of the closing statements of counsel Serkan Alkan, of Yvonne Boulgarides and of counsel Yavuz Narin. After all, these statements were an impressive and often moving end to this part of the trial, in which the victims of the NSU were able to raise their voices either in person or via their counsel.

However, the end of the trial day was taken up by planning the defense closing statements, a process which proved somewhat arduous. To quickly recap the results: the court will decide on formal questions concerning the forfeiture of moneys gained by the robberies on 20 February 2018. After that there will be a long break, the statement of Zschäpe defense counsel Grasel and Borchert will begin on 13 March and will again be followed by a break of probably one week. Continue reading →

Final statements of victims and their counsel likely to be held tomorrow.

As expected, the challenge for alleged bias brought by the Wohlleben defense last week was rejected as unfounded, so the trial could continue today. The court issued its decision rejecting the objections of 20 December 2017 with which the defense had tried to get the presiding judge to influence the content of victims’ counsel’s closing statements. The defense asked for and was granted an hour-long break to discuss the decision, after which it decided not to challenge it. Accordingly, the closing statements of victims and their counsel could continue.

Continue reading →

NSU trial to continue Wednesday, 7 February 2018, at 12 noon.

As was to be expected, the court needs additional time to deal with the challenge for alleged bias brought by the defense. The trial day tomorrow, 6 February, has been canceled, the trial session on Wednesday has been pushed back to 12 noon.