Neo-Nazi defendant apologizes from Turks

MUNICH

Co-defendant Gerlach (C) hides his face behind a folder during the NSU trial. He said he had just wanted to help out friends from far-right cell. AFP photo

A man on trial in a landmark neo-Nazi court case in Germany apologized June 6 to the families of 10 murder victims, including Turks, and admitted providing support to the underground gang accused of the mostly racially motivated killings.

Holger Gerlach, 39, is the second of five defendants to testify at the trial in Munich and the first to express regret for their role in a years-long spree of murders, robberies and bomb attacks. “I am terribly sorry that I did this. I would like to apologies,” Gerlach told the court where he and four others went on trial last month, according to Agence France-Presse. Among the accused is Beate Zschaepe who denies the charge of complicity in the murders of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek immigrant and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007 as a founding member of the National Socialist Underground (NSU).

Gerlach also told the court he had helped the three members of the NSU, among other things, supporting the trio by loaning one of them, identity papers, including his driver’s license. But the defendant said he had not known about the murders blamed on the trio. “I didn’t think it was possible the three could commit violence on this scale,” he told to the court.