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Neonazi Terrorism in Germany

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  • #91
    Formal disciplinary procedures have begun against both the Chief General of the Armed Forces Office (a 4-star with only 4 months left until pension) and his judiciary advisor that together allowed Franco A. to rewrite his master thesis in 2014 rather than running disciplinary investigations against him. Since the infraction is longer than six months ago such formal disciplinary procedures can only be started if the "intended outcome" is punishment through disciplinary arrest, a reduction in rank, docking salary, reducing pension or similar. Informal investigations against the two began two weeks ago.

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    • #92
      The way Franco A. got his asylum hearing has been analyzed: The translator - a Moroccan - did have grave doubts about the person who only spoke a little Arabic and semi-fluent French (with some other oddities in his claims) but says she did not dare to voice them since she deduced him to likely be an Israeli trying to get asylum posing as a Syrian.

      No comparable cases have been found in BAMF files; 2,000 cases which involved the same particular staff have been investigated. BAMF is now pushing ahead the - previously scheduled for later in the year - revision hearings for about 80,000 to 100,000 people who got asylum during the same year and fit certain criteria (men between 18 and 35 or 40 years from 10 countries) on a more general basis.

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      • #93
        The Beate Zschäpe NSU case is slowly coming to an end after a couple years: The court has closed the witness hearings. Before the summer break - beginning on tuesday - the final speech of the prosecution is still due, planned to take 22 hours. Defense is trying to push it past the summer break through injunctions asking for the speech to be taped or stenotyped, which the judge denied them yesterday. The victim attorneys - 62 attorneys representing 86 people - will hold their speeches in September, after the summer break.

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        • #94
          Originally posted by kato View Post
          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).
          Good Lord...four years ago and still ongoing.

          Thank you for following, Kato.
          Real eyes realize real lies.

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          • #95
            The defense is pretty efficient in drawing the case out ad nauseam. Every time the judge tried to close witness hearings over the last half year or so so they could move to the final stage the defense would challenge the court as biased. There are estimates that due to required security etc each court day so far cost about 150,000 Euro and hence just trying the case so far cost the state 55-60 million Euro.

            Of the five accused only two are sitting in jail: Beate Zschäpe herself and Wohlleben. Carsten S., the guy who transferred the gun from Wohlleben to the two dead NSU members, pretty early started talking and is currently in a witness protection program; his account included another explosives attack by NSU in June 1999 that had not been connected to them previously. The other two accused, Holger G. and Andre E. are at their homes since their likely sentences won't be sufficient to put them in jail for 4-5 years during the trial; both Wohlleben and Zschäpe can expect severely more than just 4-5 years, with the time they're in now being counted against their future sentences.

            Seven witnesses in the case have died since its beginning including one from old age (she was 80) with the other six...: two supposedly committed suicide by setting their cars on fire while sitting in them (... one while on the way to police to make a statement, the other two years before Zschäpe was arrested); one, the ex-girlfriend of the one who burned to death during the trial, died two years later from an ebolism after scratching her leg in a bike crash; one - the ex-fiance of the biker - killed himself in some other way a year later; one - a domestic intelligence informant in witness protection - died from undiagnosed diabetes; one was cremated inbetween the court being told she was dead and trying to get an autopsy order.

            The deaths are mostly used for propaganda by far-right extremist media claiming some sort of conspiracy by the state to shut up people who could get Zschäpe out of a sentence. Left media instead suspects some small group or an individual going around killing witnesses who could get that person into the police's sights; this is in particular fueled by three facts: that one of the two guys who burned to death had previously claimed that he knew who precisely had shot a police officer in 2007 (which is one of the murders Zschäpe is accused of); that all these seven dead witnesses are particular to that one single murder (... and not the 15 or so others); and that several police officers who had served with the one killed - including her direct superior - had been members of the European White Knights of the Ku-Klux-Klan for a few months five years earlier before it was dissolved.

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            • #96
              Not much news on the Franco A. case (the arrested soldier - he's still under arrest), although based on witness accounts from this case - and other initial evidence, mostly intercepted chat protocols - police searched the homes and offices of two men in the coastal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern a few days ago.

              The two are being investigated for "preparing for a civil war" which they apparently conceived as being imminent due to refugees (or whatever) and which they were planning to use to abduct and kill left-wing politicians and civilians. The two were preppers to some extent, hoarding (legal) firearms, ammunition and other basic necessities for their civil war. One of the two is a police officer, the other is an attorney and local politician with a seat in the city parliament of Rostock - in fact he's the deputy chairman of the supporting party of the city's mayor, a political splinter group formerly belonging to the procapitalist FDP. The home and offices of another police officer, supposedly a highly ranking member of the state criminal police, were also searched. The searches were conducted by federal police, notably not involving any state police.

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              • #97
                Originally posted by kato View Post
                Third arrested [Maximilian T.] is now suspected of stealing a service sidearm [...]
                Maximilian T. was released from arrest in July for lack of sufficient evidence warranting holding him. He is now subject to a formal disciplinary process in the Bundeswehr for "false reporting" though, not allowed to attend service or wear a uniform (he's a First Lieutenant in the 291st Infantry Battalion stationed in Illkirch, France); he's basically sitting at home and has to call in daily or so.

                The AfD has now admitted that Maximilian T. is a member of their party - after denying exactly that back in May.

                Originally posted by PeeCoffee View Post
                Good Lord...four years ago and still ongoing.
                Final prosecution speech is currently ongoing and will be finished with the Federal Attorney calling for a life sentence plus security detention for her once that's done (... on September 12th). With regard to Zschäpe the speech is finished, the part next week will focus on the other four accused. They're apparently going to try for a full package there too, calling for a verdict on supporting a terrorist organization (for all four), on nine instances of assistance to murder (for Ralf Wohlleben and Carsten S.) and for one instance of assistance to attempted murder plus multiple instances of assistance to armed robbery (for Holger G.).

                People are watching the prosecution speech for other things though - and so far the press finds that state involvement in the case is effectively cast aside. Last week the court was interrupted for ten minutes by some political activists invading the room (for the first time since the case started), accusing the Federal Attorney of actively preventing an investigation of state involvement, i.e. mostly preventing investigation of undercover agents of domestic intelligence services as part of the case.

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                • #98
                  Prosecution has announced the verdicts they're asking for in their final speech:
                  • life sentence plus "grave guilt" (1) plus security detention afterwards for Beate Zschäpe [the maximum German law allows in sentencing]
                  • 12 years for Ralf Wohlleben (2) for 9 cases of assistance to murder by providing a firearm to the terrorists [75% of maximum possible in his case]
                  • 12 years for Andre E. (3), since they're going for assistance to attempted murder instead of only assistance to an explosives attack [otherwise the maximum would be about 11 years, this way it'd also be 75% of the maximum possible]
                  • 5 years for Holger G. for providing fake IDs and quarters to the terrorists [half of the maximum possible]
                  • 3 years of youth arrest (4) for Carsten S., the courier for the firearm Wohlleben organized [the minimum for assistance to murder]

                  (1) means that instead of a possibility to apply for a parole hearing after 15 years she'll get a hearing after 15 years in which it is decided when she can apply for a parole hearing at the earliest (and another 10-15 years are standard there, with no upper limit - the currently longest-serving prisoner with this sentence has been in prison for 55 years, and given his last application was denied in 2014 at age 78 he'll probably be in till he dies). Security detention means that if she'll ever be paroled she'll simply be moved to another, more comfortable... well, we don't call it prison, but it is one.
                  (2) Wohlleben has been in jail for the last six years while the trial was going on. These will count against the sought-after 12 years.
                  (3) Andre E. so far was not under arrest due to a likely short sentence, other than a few months at the beginning of investigations. At the point this sought-after sentence was announced prosecution also asked for an arrest order for him; the judge interrupted the session and had him arrested in the court room.
                  (4) notional "youth arrest" because he was under 21 at the time. He would serve this in a regular prison though.

                  The announcement yesterday was a surprise mostly for Andre E. whose body shows his convictions (no, i'm not embedding that picture here) and who up until the final speech started about a week ago was still making jokes and laughing in the courtroom.
                  Zschäpe took it on as usual since the start of the trial, without so much as a shrug.
                  The sentence for Carsten S. is that low because he acted as a crown witness since the start of the trial, pretty much admitting all and giving witness accounts on the others.

                  Also a couple English articles on this announcement out there, e.g. from the BBC. Here's the one from DW:

                  NSU trial: Federal prosecutor demands life sentence for Beate Zschäpe

                  Prosecutors in one of Germany's most closely-watched trials have demanded that Beate Zschäpe serve a life sentence for her alleged part in a string of neo-Nazi murders. The trial is entering its closing stage.


                  Germany's Federal Prosecutor Herbert Diemer told a Munich court on Tuesday that Beate Zschäpe was complicit in every one of the National Socialist Underground's (NSU) 10 murders, two bombings and 15 robberies, carried out between 2000 and 2007.

                  Diemer told the court that a sentence was due for each individual murder.

                  The NSU, a right-wing extremist group, murdered eight Turks, a Greek and a German policewoman over the seven-year period. The group also carried out two bomb attacks in Cologne, as well as a handful of robberies.

                  Diemer said that Zschäpe, along with her late accomplices Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, had an obvious affiliation with neo-Nazi ideology and sought to stoke fear among migrants living in Germany with random murders. Zschäpe had shown a willingness to being "a key member" of the NSU and made up "one-third of a conspiring triumvirate," he said.

                  Diemer had yet to comment on what further sentences Zschäpe should face for the NSU's subsequent robberies and arson attacks.

                  Read more: NSU trial: Zschäpe's one word about a child's murder

                  Zschäpe has denied any involvement in the murders, laying all the blame on Mundlos and Böhnhardt, with whom she lived for years in hiding.

                  The marathon trial, which began four years ago, has become one of the mostly closely watched court cases in German history. Four further defendants face charges of aiding and abetting the NSU's murders, including a former official at the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD).

                  Zschäpe's suspected co-conspirators, Mundlos and Böhnhardt, died in an apparent suicide-murder in 2011. Following their deaths, the German public and media were shocked to discover that the far-right cell was behind the killings, and not migrant crime gangs as previously suspected.

                  dm/kms (AFP, dpa)
                  http://www.dw.com/en/nsu-trial-feder...4pe/a-40461231

                  On some other cases mentioned in this thread:

                  Originally posted by kato View Post
                  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.
                  The trial against this group is ongoing since May this year, and will probably last until 2018 as well. They're currently around court day 48 there. By comparison it's pretty low-key though, with very little public interest and even barely any attending audience in the courtroom. Charges against the eight are for forming a terrorist group, for attempted murder, for attacks using explosives and for aggravated battery (committed during an explosives attack on the car of a politician, two separate explosives attacks on refugee homes injuring one, an explosives attack against a party office of the Left and for throwing stones and chemicals against a leftist group injuring one) - possible maximum sentences are in the 10-15 year region.

                  Somewhat classy: since Saxony does not have a courtroom large - and secure - enough for the trial they're holding it in the converted mess hall of an empty refugee home.

                  Originally posted by kato View Post
                  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.
                  The trial against Old School Society concluded in March this year. The two "presidents" got 5 year and 4 year 6 month sentences respectively, the other two accused 3 year 10 month and 3 year sentences respectively. The sentences were for forming a terrorist group, planning an explosives attack and procuring the explosives for that in the Czech Republic. One of the four sentenced is from Freital, the same village that the above FTL/360 militia was formed in shortly after.

                  The OSS group had about 25 other members mostly in contact over the internet (Facebook, the more serious stuff went on in Telegram messaging service); these weren't subject in the trial. The sentences handed out were lowered for the fact that one of those about 25 others was an undercover police officer pulling surveillance on the group the entire time, interrupting once there was sufficient stuff going on for arrests.
                  Last edited by kato; 12 Sep 17,, 22:45.

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                  • #99
                    Thank you again for providing updates carried predominantly on German media.
                    Real eyes realize real lies.

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                    • Socalled Reichsbürger Wolfgang P. has been sentenced to life in prison for one case of murder, two cases of attempted murder and grave battery. No "grave guilt" though, so he could be out in a couple decades.

                      "Reichsbürger" are an extremist group described here in English on Wikipedia; despite what it says there only about 10-20% are rightwing extremists, many instead are e.g. bible lunatics, druids or similar groups - the moniker is applied to about anyone who denies the sovereignty of the German state over part of or all of its territory.

                      Wolfgang P. is the guy mentioned anonymously under "Interaction with law enforcement authorities" who refused to have his sizable armory checked into by local authorities and upon having a SWAT team knock down the door started shooting at them. A number of other adherents of that particular political leaning are in court for similar cases to the above, including as a curiosity a former Mister Germany pageant title holder who erected his own mini-state with 120 adherents - police assaulted it with 200 officers, calling it off though after shooting and retrieving the main guy. Wolfgang P. was connected to this guy.
                      Most cases involve shooting at police officers or other "representatives of the state", in some cases also using other weapons - there are currently two women on trial for an acid attack for example. Wolfgang P. stands out because it was the case that triggered domestic intelligence surveillance on Reichsbürger - with an increasing number under surveillance since November 2016, currently about 15,000 people. This was followed by a decision of the conference of state interior ministers that the whole group should be disarmed; about 700 Reichsbürger legally own registered weapons.

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                      • The federal attorney has formally begun a court case against Franco Hans A., the arrested soldier who build himself a second identity as a refugee. The charges are for preparation of a grave violent crime against the state, violations of the weapons of war control law, weapons law and explosives law as well as theft and fraud.

                        The formal accusal - short form - runs as following:
                        • The accused is a member of the Bundeswehr, serving in the rank of First Lieutenant.
                        • The accused, out of racial-nationalist convictions planned to commit an attack on the lifes of highranking politicians and other public figures known for pro-refugee commitment. Intended victims based on the accused's records among others were Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas, Vice President of the Parliament Claudia Roth and human rights activist Anetta Kahane.
                        • In order to commit his plans the accused procured four firearms, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and 50 explosive devices. The firearms included a G3 Bundeswehr service rifle, a semiautomatic rifle and two pistols. At least part of the ammunition and explosive devices were stolen from Bundeswehr stocks.
                        • Furthermore the accused registered as an asylum seeker under the fictitious identity of a Syrian citizen. This was done to use this fictitious identity in perpetrating his attacks, intending to steer investigations after his attacks towards asylum seekers living in Germany. The accused received residence titles and in total several thousand Euro of state aid in both cash and in kind.
                        • The preparation of a grave violent crime against the state the accused is charged with is a crime relevant to the protection of the state of significant gravity [yes, that sentence is like that in German too]. By the accused's vision his attacks were supposed to be perceived by the population as terror acts by a radical islamist refugee. In view of the ongoing public discussion of refugee politics such a perceived terror act by a registered asylum seeker would have received particular attention and would have contributed to a general unsecure feeling. Aside from this preparation of a grave violent crime against the state by a nationalist Bundeswehr member would in particular weaken the trust of the population in the proper functioning of the Bundeswehr and through this weaken the general sense of security in the population.

                          [...]

                          [Regarding co-accused Maximilian T. and Mathias F.] the Federal Court of Justice has specified the preconditions for complicity and assistance to preparation of a grave violent crime against the state. Under this specification in this case complicity requires contributing to the accused obtaining or storing his weapons. Against this background investigations against Maximilian T. and Mathias F. continue.
                        (translation from German by me)

                        Court now has to ponder whether to start judicial proceedings based on the above accusal.

                        Comment


                        • Being swept a bit under the rug right now, but a 70-year-old Russian-German attacked several refugees with a knife in South Germany this saturday, injuring three. He was stopped by other people in the area before he could attack more. Based on a first questioning police currently assumes he did it for political reasons, in their description alluding to another guy who stabbed a politician in Cologne in 2015 for her pro-refugee politics.

                          With regard to sweeping it under, the German Police Union is currently critizing the local precinct for its information policy, which initially portrayed the case as a drunken row between foreigners, in particular admonishing the fact that they mistakenly stated the perpetrator was a Russian.

                          Only english-language account i've found is this one, which for some reason moves the setting of the attack to Denmark (didn't know i was living 50 km from that border too) and elaborates on Danish refugee politics from there on...

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                          • Charge against the perp in the last post is now for three counts of attempted murder (it was only for aggravated battery before). The perp was initially released on monday, but was now re-arrested on a court order since he is now considered to hold the danger of flight (due to the higher possible sentence) or repetition of crime (due to a xenophobic leaning beyond just some political extremism). After his attack he was taken down and held by two other refugees until the police that they called arrived.

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                            • Originally posted by kato View Post
                              The trial against this group is ongoing since May this year, and will probably last until 2018 as well. They're currently around court day 48 there. By comparison it's pretty low-key though, with very little public interest and even barely any attending audience in the courtroom. Charges against the eight are for forming a terrorist group, for attempted murder, for attacks using explosives and for aggravated battery (committed during an explosives attack on the car of a politician, two separate explosives attacks on refugee homes injuring one, an explosives attack against a party office of the Left and for throwing stones and chemicals against a leftist group injuring one) - possible maximum sentences are in the 10-15 year region.
                              The FTL/360 trial has ended after 73 court days. The two ring leaders received sentences of 10 and 9.5 years respectively, sentences for the others started at around 4 years.

                              Comment



                              • Report: Far-right Reichsbürger movement is growing, building army

                                German media have reported that the anti-government group has grown by 56 percent to 15,600 members. Security services are concerned that propaganda about a 'Reichsbürger army' will inspire attacks.



                                Germany
                                Report: Far-right Reichsbürger movement is growing, building army

                                German media have reported that the anti-government group has grown by 56 percent to 15,600 members. Security services are concerned that propaganda about a 'Reichsbürger army' will inspire attacks.
                                Reichsbürger's slogans posted in Berlin, 2014 (Imago/Future Image)

                                Germany's most idiosyncratic far-right movement has increased its membership by about 56 percent in a single year, local media reported on Friday. The Reichsbürger group is also trying to build an army and preparing for a "day of reckoning," according to news magazine Focus.

                                Reichsbürger is used as a label for a loosely connected group of Germans who believe that the 1871 borders of the German empire are still in effect and that all of the country's governments since (and including) the Nazis have been illegitimate, many also subscribe to anti-Semitic ideologies.

                                They believe that the current Federal Republic of Germany is a puppet government controlled by the Allied powers of World War II.

                                'Preparing for Day X'

                                Usually dismissed as a disparate association of ideological radicals, the Reichsbürger have increasingly been in the headlines after a series of violent incidents in the past two years, including the murder of a policeman in the Bavarian town of Georgensgmünd.

                                After putting in information requests to Germany's domestic security agencies, Focus reported that the number of Reichsbürger adherents had grown to 15,600 by January – up more than 50 percent from the same time last year.

                                The biggest number of supporters resides in Bavaria, which has about 3,500 Reichsbürger members.

                                "They have begun preparing themselves for Day X," Focus writes, referring to an imagined day of reckoning or uprising against the German government. They are also apparently trying to form an army.

                                While the organization's disjointed nature makes the threat of significant violence relatively low, security services are worried that the Reichsbürger's militia propaganda will inspire lone-wolf attacks and increase illegal weapons trafficking. More than 1,000 Reichsbürger members have one or more legal weapons licenses.
                                http://www.dw.com/en/report-far-righ...rmy/a-42123450

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