Beate Zschaepe – praag.org

Germany rejects allegations of police racism

Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel

Germany’s government Friday rejected charges that its police were racist that arose from an inquiry into authorities’ decade-long failure to uncover a neo-Nazi cell accused of shooting dead nine immigrants.

“The federal police do not behave in racist fashion and have not done so in the past,” said Jens Teschke, a spokesman for Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich. “We strongly reject this allegation.”

He spoke one day after an official inquiry concluded that the failure to find the cell accused in the slayings of one Greek and eight Turks was because of incompetence in the police and intelligence services.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, welcomed the findings, saying, “The results will be thoroughly analysed, in particular the measures for reform that were proposed.”

The inquiry found the police trapped themselves in a false theory that a Turkish gang had formed in Germany to kill compatriots.

One member of the 11-member commission of inquiry, Social Democratic legislator Eva Hoegl, upset police unions by telling the media the disarray resulted from “structures of suspicion and prejudice in the police that often have a racist stamp.”

However, the example she gave was not connected to the botched inquiry into the National Socialist Underground (NSU) but claims last year that a small, specialized force that patrols trains and airports tends to ask black people to show their identity more than whites.

The force, the Federal Police, denied prejudice.

“We heard the allegations against the Federal Police …. with utter astonishment,” Teschke said. “The Federal Police had nothing to do with [the NSU inquiry].”

The inquiry chairman, Sebastian Edathy, earlier also denied the police were fundamentally racist, saying, “I don’t believe we have institutional racism, but I do believe that in everyday work, the police need to question their own stereotypes.”

Edathy, an opposition Social Democrat, said remedies included hiring more ethnic minorities to change the mentality of the police.

The inquiry into the killings from 2000 to 2007 ran parallel to a trial in Munich at which Beate Zschaepe, 38, is charged as an accomplice to the slayings. She is the only survivor of the three-member NSU. Two men died in a murder-suicide in 2011 that brought the gang to light. – dpa

German parliamentary report on neo-Nazi cell expected today

Germany’s decade-long failure to uncover a neo-Nazi cell blamed in the killings of immigrants was the fault of incompetence in the police and intelligence services, a commission of inquiry was expected to report Thursday.

Eight Turkish shopkeepers, a Greek man and a policewoman were shot to death in attacks in multiple cities from 2000 to 2007, but police only connected the crimes to the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) four years after the last slaying.

The commission, made up of members of parliament, is to publish its findings after a year and a half of hearings and is to recommend reforms.

Sebastian Edathy, an opposition Social Democrat who chaired the inquiry, said the committee determined that the most horrifying suspicion, that detectives or secret agents might have protected the gang of two men and one woman, was unfounded.

“We did not find any evidence whatsoever that the authorities knew who was behind the crimes or looked the other way or even deliberately helped the perpetrators,” Edathy said. “We followed up every clue.”

Instead, the committee was expected to attribute the failure to across-the-board incompetence by about three dozen squabbling investigative agencies.

“This was a failure by the authorities without historical parallel,” Edathy said.

“November 4, 2011, when the trio was discovered was to us what September 11, 2001, was to the Americans,” he said. “It was the day we realized that our complete security architecture in Germany was not attuned to things like far-right terrorism.”

Germany monitors the wider neo-Nazi movement, which numbers about 5,000, and pays insiders to be informers but overlooked the cell.

The 1,000-page report was expected to conclude that police and agents failed to follow up clues, such as sightings of the neo-Nazis; worked under false assumptions because of institutional racism; and refused to share data with one another because of turf wars.

A parliamentary debate on the report was scheduled September 2.

The two accused gunmen died in a killing-cum-suicide before they could be caught. A judicial finding of their responsibility in the crimes was expected at the end of the current trial of Beate Zschape, the female survivor of the trio. She is charged as an accomplice to murder. – dpa

Second defendant starts testimony in Germany’s neo-Nazi trial

The second of the five defendants began testimony Thursday at Germany’s landmark trial over racially inspired murders – the work, according to prosecutors, of a trio of neo-Nazis.

Holger G, who is alleged to have aided the killer cell by lending it his identity documents, was to read out his own statement about the crime spree, but would not answer any questions about it, his lawyer announced as the hearing began.

At the start of the day, the judge asked Holger G standard questions about his vital data and family background. His surname has been withheld under privacy guidelines for the media.

The trial in Munich began May 6, but testimony on the origins of the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) only began this week. Prosecutors say Beate Zschaepe, 38, is the sole survivor of the NSU. She stands accused as an accomplice to murders and bombings.

The other two members, Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, are dead after an apparent 2011 suicide pact. They are believed to have gunned down nine immigrants and a policewoman from 2000 to 2007 in attacks that chilled Germany’s ethnic Turkish minority and baffled police.

Another accused, 33-year-old Carsten S, this week admitted couriering a gun and silencer to the gang about 13 years ago.

There was an adjournment of the court before 39-year-old Holger G could begin reading out his statement.

“Follow the reading of this declaration, our client will not for the time being answer any further questions,” his lawyer Stefan Hachmeister told the court. He said Holger G might add more testimony later in the trial.

Police have said the trio, who were living with fake identities and supporting themselves by robbing banks, turned to neo-Nazi Holger G to borrow his identity documents because he resembled one of the gang members.Author: Jean-Baptiste Piggin and Jochen Neumeyer – dpa

‘National Socialist Underground’ trial starts in Germany – leader is a woman

A major neo-Nazi murder trial opened Monday in Germany over a killing spree that embarrassed authorities, shed a spotlight on the country’s murky far-right scene, and exposed institutional racism and incompetence.

The trial opened amid tight security in the southern city of Munich after a three-week delay over an outcry about media access which has further undermined Germany’s image on top of fundamental security flaws exposed by the murder spree.

Under a heavy police presence, chief defendant Beate Zschäpe, 38, entered the Munich court just before proceedings began, appearing relaxed and with her arms folded, while dozens of anti-racist protesters shouted slogans outside.

Many people, including reporters had lined up outside overnight to claim one of the 50 free courtroom seats for the first day of the high-profile trial whose significance extends far beyond the murders.

Zschäpe faces charges linked to 10 mostly racially motivated murders over a seven-year period as the last surviving member of a killer trio, most of whose victims were of Turkish origin.

She is the last surviving member of a neo-Nazi trio whose random discovery in November 2011 forced the country to re-assess its image of having learnt the lessons of its Nazi past.

Germany has not seen a terror trial of this scale since members of the prominent left-wing militant group, the Red Army Faction, were sentenced 36 years ago.

Ten were killed

Zschäpe is charged with complicity in the murders of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek immigrant and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007. She is said to be one of three central members of the far-right gang dubbed the National Socialist Underground (NSU).

She is also accused of involvement in 15 armed robberies, arson and attempted murder in two bomb attacks.

Her lawyers deny she was directly involved in murder. Zschäpe has remained silent during her 18-month custody and supposedly has no plans to break her silence during the hearing which could last more than two years.

Dressed in a black jacket, white shirt and wearing large hoop earrings, Zschäpe entered the courtroom before the hearing got under way and stood with her back to the TV camera.

She faces life in prison if convicted. Four men alleged to be accomplices will also go on trial on lesser charges.

Families want many answers

For the victims’ families, the opening day of the highly-anticipated trial will be their first chance to see the accused in person, as they seek answers to why their loved ones were gunned down.

Lawyers for Semiya and Kerim Simsek, whose father was the first victim, said in a written statement their clients who are co-plaintiffs would be seeking many answers from the trial.

“They want to know why their father was murdered. How they came upon the flower seller Enver Simsek? Did local neo-Nazi networks help in the victim selection?” they said.

Germans were stunned to learn in November 2011 that home-grown racist killers were behind the unsolved murders – and not the foreign criminal gangs that police and the media had always assumed were to blame.

Anger was stoked by revelations that the security forces failed to home in on the killers for more than a decade, and an admission that files had been shredded that could have helped the investigation.

Lawyers for some of the victims’ relatives, who are co-plaintiffs, said, apart from a conviction, they wanted a clear naming of those who also bore responsibility.

Relatives want names of those responsible

They called in a joint statement for a discussion which seriously addresses the problem of “far-right violence and structural racism” in Germany and initiates necessary changes.

The case only came to light after Zschäpe’s alleged NSU accomplices, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, were found shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

Zschäpe then allegedly blew up their shared home in eastern Germany not long before handing herself in to police.

A DVD with a film in the style of a “Pink Panther” cartoon, which the group had produced earlier, claiming responsibility for the attacks, then emerged.

“I assure you that Germany will do everything necessary to shed light on the murders at all points and sentence the criminals to the punishments they deserve,” Merkel said in an interview with Turkish newspaper Hurriyet last week.

At a memorial to the victims she called the killings a “disgrace” for the country and apologised for the fact that suspicion had fallen on some victims’ relatives, which she called “particularly tormenting”.

UN Human Rights Council criticism

Berlin last month apologised before the UN Human Rights Council for mistakes in probing the NSU murders which the government’s top official on human rights described as “one of the worst human rights abuses in recent decades” in Germany.

As most of the victims originated from Turkey, the trial will be intensely scrutinised beyond Germany’s borders.

A controversy over the accreditation of journalists overshadowed the run-up to the trial after the court initially failed to guarantee Turkish media seats when it handed out reserved spots on a first-come, first-served basis.

This strained German-Turkish ties and forced a last-minute postponement when Germany’s top court ordered it to allocate seats to foreign reporters, leading to the final 50 media organisations being chosen in a lottery.

Turkish media now have four seats but several leading German newspapers missed out. – AFP