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Neonazi Terrorism in Germany

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  • #61
    The trial started today.

    NSU neo-Nazi murder trial opens in Munich | News | DW.DE | 06.05.2013
    German NSU Neo Nazi Trial Starts in Munich - SPIEGEL ONLINE

    After opening, the trial was postponed until next tuesday since the defendant questions the judges neutrality (Anadolu News agency article). This accusation will be examined by an independent panel of peers before the next court day.

    Edit, P.S.: Both Zschäpe and Wohlleben raised the non-neutrality question. Zschäpe's attorneys used the fact that unlike other official attendants of the trial they were searched for weapons and hence the court apparently considers them criminals (the attorneys are court-appointed duty councils); Wohlleben's attorneys bemourn the fact that he only got two court-appointed duty councils, not three like Zschäpe (the other three accused only got one guy paid for each, due to the lesser gravity of their crimes).
    Last edited by kato; 06 May 13,, 18:50.

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    • #62
      Related news: German Terrorism Trial Puts Racism Fears In The Spotlight
      "There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge

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      • #63
        Trial is in its 8th day of session now.

        So far the trial has focussed on Carsten S. who has admitted getting the gun for the NSU. Proceedings run towards whether he was aware of the purpose of the gun and when he got the order for specifically a silenced gun. S. has admitted acting as a general go-between between NSU members Uwe Böhnig and Uwe Mundlos (both deceased) and the other accused Ralf Wohlleben, receiving requests from the NSU by telephone and organizing them being carried out with Ralf Wohlleben. This included procurement such as the gun and a motorcycle, but also criminal activity such as some breaking and entering into flats the trio previously had occupied. S. has also made out Beate Zschäpe as an integral member of the NSU in court btw, an important contribution to what the state attorneys will be trying to prove later on in the trial.

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        • #64
          Trial is ongoing. Following testimony by Carsten S. two possible additional attacks are being investigated.
          • one case is a possibly connected failed pipe bomb attack on a Turkish restaurant owner in 1999 which the Federal Attorney is evaluating whether to include as a 29th attempted murder case to Zschäpe's tally. The evidence from that attack (remains of the bomb) are currently being checked for fingerprints and DNA. S. testified that Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt bragged about this attack during the gun handover but actively kept Zschäpe in the dark either about the attack or about bragging about it.
          • S. also testified that Wohlleben told him the trio shot someone during the middle of 2000. The Federal Criminal Agency is still checking whether such a case was reported back then.


          Both Carsten S. and Holger G. are playing the key witnesses in court. S. is willing to answer questions too though, including by the sixty victim attorneys; G. has only answered direct questions by the judge regarding his life.

          Holger G. instead read a prepared declaration in which he admitted supporting the trio by supplying them with ID as well as once being used as a courier to transport a gun. G. has a superficial resemblance to Böhnhardt which he further increased to obtain various legal replacement photo IDs with photos that would show Böhnhardt under his name. Since the gun is presumed to not have been used in the murders he is not being prosecuted as an accessory. G. has declared he was part of a youth clique with the three later NSU members in the 1990s and hence later worked in his supplier function for them as a friend, but that he later slowly quit the scene.

          Andre E. as well as Wohlleben and Zschäpe are not talking so far.
          Last edited by kato; 19 Jun 13,, 21:23.

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          • #65
            Another crime possibly to be chalked up to the same crime:

            In 1995, in Dresden, a neonazi who the local scene considered a traitor was killed along with his brother. In witness accounts taken in 2011, a friend of Uwe Mundlos claimed that he was told by Mundlos about the case, and had the impression that Mundlos knew the victims and considered them to be undercover government agents. The case was never solved, was considered among a number of murder cases worthy of reexamining after the NSU trio was uncovered, and is apparently now being reopened.


            The trial is still ongoing (119th day in court yesterday) and is currently running through the witnesses for the bomb attack in Cologne in 2001. So far 114 witnesses were heard in 2014 alone, probably somewhere around 200 in 2013. Likely about another 50 witness accounts till the summer break for the court in early August. Three whole court days in mid-July will be dedicated to hearing a single witness, Tino Brandt, giving him about ten times as much attention as other witnesses.

            Brandt was the head of the Thuringian neonazi militia from which the NSU trio supposedly formed, as well as vice president of the state NPD chapter; like many people in such positions in the 90s he was also hired as an agent for the state domestic intelligence service, which was uncovered in 2001. The questioning of Brandt will probably focus on the second half of the 90s, when members of that militia centered around the NSU trio committed several attacks using pipe bombs in Thuringia. There have been some suspicions in the media that a failed attempt to arrest the trio after those pipe bomb attacks was actually actively foiled by the state intelligence service in order to protect Brandt as their agent (see also post #2 in this thread).
            Last edited by kato; 06 Jun 14,, 20:10.

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            • #66
              In case anyone wonders, the NSU trial is ongoing. Current witness hearings are amusing stuff with Blood & Honour members who contradict their own statements repeatedly, and of course claim to never have heard, seen or done anything. Last month they were hearing undercover agents of the Constitutional Protection Service which as you might expect went about the same way.

              The legal counsels of defense and accessory prosecution (i.e. victims) are fighting each other in legal speeches regarding what each side is allowed to ask and stuff like that while the judges are shaking their heads and trying to rein them in. About what you can expect at this stage.


              ---

              Separate Case:

              The German Federal Attorney is reopening investigations into the 1980 Oktoberfest bombing. That bombing was perpetrated by a neonazi who killed himself along with 13 other people, also injuring 200 others.

              Back in 1980, the attack was quickly ruled a solitary action by a single man, with all leads towards other possibilities suppressed. A single lead was followed up on back then, linking the attack to another neonazi who bunkered weapons and explosives and provided locations of other depots; the man was found hanged in his cell the next day after having promised more revelations. This lead, along with the suicide bomber's connections to a neonazi militia, is usually directly linked to NATO's illegal stay behind force Gladio - of course not officially; the current official version is that there is likely some unknown background organization.

              The new main lead is a teacher who about three months ago claimed that back in 1980 she had seen propaganda flyers in the locker of one of her students, an out-and-proud neonazi (an Aussiedler, i.e. an ethnic German who immigrated from east of the Iron Curtain - which in Germany is the second-largest ethnic group of neonazis, after East Germans). Those propaganda flyers supposedly pronounced the suicide bomber a national-patriotic hero, and named him - just one day after the attack and considerably before police published the name of the suicide bomber.

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              • #67
                Two years in, and yep - it's still ongoing. Currently expected to last until at least September 2016.

                Not really many changes:
                - domestic intelligence services are still barring files from being used in the trial, including ones that the court confiscated
                - Zschäpe has switched out one of her four court-sponsored defense attorneys
                - there are investigations being prepared against five people for supposed false testimonies in the trial
                - professionals monitoring the trial are currently expecting a guilty verdict and maximum sentence

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                • #68
                  Zschäpe made her first statement during the trial in early December.

                  Neo-Nazi trial suspect Zschäpe denies prior knowledge of NSU crimes

                  Suspected neo-Nazi terrorist Beate Zschäpe has made her first personal statement in her two-and-a-half-year trial. She denied prior knowledge of the group's crimes, but feels "morally guilty" for ten murders.

                  For the first time in her two-and-a-half-year trial, alleged neo-Nazi terrorist Beate Zschäpe has made a personal statement in front of the Munich courtroom where the trial of alleged members or accomplices of the "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) is taking place.

                  One of Zschäpe's lawyers, Mathias Grasel, read a 53-page statement on her behalf. It began by describing Zschäpe's childhood in former East Germany - with an absent father and an alcohol-abusing mother - before addressing her shift into the right-wing scene in Germany.

                  The NSU is believed to be responsible for, among other crimes, ten murders that mostly targeted people with a migrant background. Many relatives of the NSU murder victims traveled to Munich to hear Zschäpe's statement firsthand. On Wednesday, she said "I sincerely apologize to the victims and their families," and added she felt "morally guilty for not preventing ten murders."

                  At the conclusion of Zschäpe's statement, a lawyer for the victims' families, Mehmet Daimagüler, told reporters "I don't believe a word she said."

                  "My clients wanted to find out why their fathers, husbands, and brothers had to die. Ms. Zschäpe didn't say anything about that," Daimagüler added.

                  Another lawyer for the victims, Stefan Lucas, said "if that's all Ms. Zschäpe had to tell us, she should have just said nothing."

                  [...]
                  http://www.dw.com/en/neo-nazi-trial-...mes/a-18903363

                  Zschäpe is still mostly trying to get rid of her three court-appointed attorneys, aptly - for a Neonazi trial - named Heer, Stahl and Sturm (seriously).

                  Expectations currently are that the other three accused will start dropping information once it gets tighter for them. The three have already begun accusing each other of trying to push guilt towards each other.

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                  • #69
                    Originally posted by kato View Post
                    Zschäpe is still mostly trying to get rid of her three court-appointed attorneys, aptly - for a Neonazi trial - named Heer, Stahl and Sturm (seriously).
                    If I were a Neo-Nazi and that's the name of my defense team, I would probably demand some changes.
                    All those who are merciful with the cruel will come to be cruel to the merciful.
                    -Talmud Kohelet Rabbah, 7:16.

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                    • #70
                      Originally posted by kato View Post
                      Zschäpe is still mostly trying to get rid of her three court-appointed attorneys, aptly - for a Neonazi trial - named Heer, Stahl and Sturm (seriously).
                      If I were a Neo-Nazi and that's the name of my defense team, I would probably demand some changes.
                      All those who are merciful with the cruel will come to be cruel to the merciful.
                      -Talmud Kohelet Rabbah, 7:16.

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                      • #71
                        Some 200 officers - including GSG9 - arrested four men and a women today on suspicion of having formed a terrorist group.

                        The group had formed a local militia - "Bürgerwehr FTL/360" - in Freital, Saxony (which is somewhat notorious in Germany by now*) and supposedly included 8 people that committed attacks using explosives on refugee homes, leftist groups, an office of the Left party and the car of a city official during September and October last year; the other three have been in jail since November, a few days after the last attack. One of the arrested - the woman - was also arrested in November but was allowed to leave. Charges are for membership in a terrorist group, attempted murder, illegally using explosives, preparing an attack using explosives and heavy battery. There will probably be a more detailed list once trials begin; there were about a dozen serious attacks in that town until the ringleaders were arrested.

                        Rumour mill from judicial circles says that the Saxonian police wasn't cooperative (at all) in handing the case over to federal authorities (where terror cases automatically have to be transferred to), hence why arresting the other five comes so late by comparison. The case is the first one in which forming a group to commit attacks on refugee homes is treated as terrorism - usually that's something that the state tends to ignore. Saxonian state attorneys handled the three arrested as separate cases and only charged them in district courts. Two of the trials were supposed to launch sessions in June, the third - against one of the ringleaders and in the separate cases the only that had been charged with battery - was supposed to begin in January.

                        The Saxonian domestic intelligence service claimed last summer not to know about the above group in a response to a parliamentary inquiry. Back then the group was running "patrols" in local bus lines to "protect passengers from refugees". In the same response the socalled Operative Defense Center (that's the state police group for politically motivated crimes) answered that several members of this group were being investigated for heavy battery. The investigation was for beating up the son of the deputy prime minister of the state - and a local politician - with baseball bats in June.

                        A similar group - Oldschool Society - was arrested last May before they could commit any attacks. They were planning explosives attacks on refugee homes and mosques. They were also located in Saxony.

                        *) notorious as in: That town manages to confirm about every suspicion and prejudice that Germans ever had about rural Saxony. Think kinda like a KKK chapter somewhere in the Southern USA. That included - after the first three arrests - the local CDU (i.e. Merkel's conservative party) publishing a declaration in which they effectively blamed "the Greens, SPD and Left". And those refugees. For being attacked.
                        Last edited by kato; 19 Apr 16,, 21:51.

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                        • #72
                          Deutsche Welle news report and interview about the arrests in English:

                          http://www.dw.com/en/german-countert...cts/a-19197547

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                          • #73
                            The bus of a German soccer team on its way to a game was bombed today.

                            Borussia Dortmund: Three explosions near German football team bus

                            Spanish international Marc Bartra was injured in the blasts and his team's Champions League match against Monaco was postponed.

                            Three explosions have gone off near the Borussia Dortmund team bus in Germany.

                            One of the side's players, Spanish international Marc Bartra, was taken to hospital after being injured and some of the coach's windows were broken.

                            He was said to have suffered a wounded hand after being hit by shards of glass.
                            preview image
                            Video: Inside Dortmund's Stadium after bus attack

                            Other players in the German side are thought to have been unhurt.

                            The blasts happened as the vehicle was leaving the team hotel in Dortmund ahead of the side's Champions League match against Monaco.

                            The explosions took place 10km from the Westfalenstadion stadium, where the team had been due to face the French side in their quarter-final first leg tie.
                            Borussia Dortmund's Marc Bartra in action for his team
                            Image: Borussia Dortmund's Marc Bartra has been taken to hospital

                            The game has now been postponed until Wednesday evening.

                            Borussia Dortmund said there was no danger at the stadium, where around 80,000 people would have been expected tonight.
                            Stadium
                            Image: Borussia Dortmund released this picture from inside the stadium

                            The club thanked Monaco supporters for their "patience and understanding" and for chanting "Dortmund! Dortmund!" when the reason for the postponement was announced.

                            Dortmund recommended that fans stay in the stadium and remain calm to allow an "orderly departure".

                            It is not known what caused the blasts.
                            A message about the bomb blast shown inside the Westfalenstadion stadium
                            Image: A message about the blasts shown inside the stadium

                            North Rhine-Westphalia police spokesman Gunnar Wortmann said there were "three explosions near the team bus as they left the hotel to go to the stadium".

                            He added that "there was one player injured inside and damage to a window".
                            Police patrol outide the stadium after the team bus of Borussia Dortmund had some windows broken by an explosion 10km away from the stadium
                            Image: Police patrol outside the stadium

                            Police said in a statement: "In the run-up to the Champions League game between BVB (Dortmund) and AS Monaco, there was just after 7pm tonight an explosion close to the BVB team bus."

                            "According to what we currently know, the wheels of the bus (totally or partly) burst and one person was injured.

                            "It is not yet possible to say exactly what the explosion was or exactly where something exploded."
                            http://news.sky.com/story/borussia-d...m-bus-10833968

                            Why in this thread? Because violence around Borussia Dortmund mostly stems from a single hooligan group newly formed from preexisting groups about a year ago. With known neonazi connections.

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                            • #74
                              Police has two possible suspects: A 25-year-old Iraqi who was on the terror watch list anyway and lived nearby - and a 28-year-old German salafist living a couple dozen km northeast. Evidence against either of them seems to be pretty much non-existant, given police hasn't filed for their formal jailing so far, and having released one will also have to release them within the next five hours.

                              Two admission statements have popped up; one left-wing extremist (on the internet) written in a style that the police immediately dismissed it as neonazis mocking antifa, and one islamist (on paper, found nearby) written in a style that police suspect it's faked.

                              The bomb, despite the small results, consisted of a IED wrapped in metal pieces that were propelled up to 100m by the blast; one shrapnel piece was found buried in the headrest of one of the seats of the bus and would have been lethal. Explosives specialists have termed the make of the IED "surprisingly professional".

                              The Dortmund/Monaco game was postponed to the next day and is on right now. 0:0 as of 12th minute.

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                              • #75
                                Second guy has been jailed, though not in connection with the bombing - but instead for being a suspected member of IS in Iraq.

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