Neo-Nazi trial: Woman ‘part of kill squad’

MUNICH

German courth charges Defendant Zschaepe over ‘part of kill squad.’ REUTERS photo

German prosecutors May 14 charged that a woman at the center of a landmark trial over a neo-Nazi group’s murder spree was an integral part of a “unified killing squad” that shot dead 10 people, most of them Turkish migrants.

The second day of the eagerly awaited trial was mostly taken up with legal arguments and a reading of the charges against Zschaepe, whose two presumed male accomplices, Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, both committed suicide in 2011.

“The NSU members considered themselves a murder squad, committing killings with racist and anti-state motives,” federal public prosecutor Herbert Diemer said. “Zschaepe had the critical role of creating an air of normality and legality for the terrorist group. This included giving innocuous reasons to neighbors and friends to explain the long absences of Boehnhardt and Mundlos, who were seeking possible targets and planning the deeds.”

Zschaepe is charged with complicity in the shooting of the 10 victims between 2000 and 2007, as well as two bombings in immigrant areas of Cologne and 15 bank robberies. Four male co-defendants had helped the shooters by variously procuring weapons, giving them documents and renting vehicles, said the prosecutor. They have been identified only as Carsten S., Holger G. and Andre E., as well as Ralf Wohlleben.