BGH confirms judgments against NSU terrorist Zschäpe and helpers

Beate Zschäpe has to pay a life sentence for the acts of the NSU terrorist cell. The 3rd Criminal Senate of the Federal Court of Justice has rejected the woman’s appeal against the judgment of the Munich Higher Regional Court, only a small individual penalty is omitted. The BGH announced this in a press release on Thursday. The appeals by the defendants Ralf Wohlleben and Holger G. are also unsuccessful. The OLG had sentenced Wohlleben to ten years and Holger G. to three years imprisonment. The assessment of the evidence by the OLG zu Zschäpe “shows no legal error,” said the BGH. The defendant was “particularly involved in the planning of every single murder attempt and robbery”. In the case of Wohlleben and Holger G., the judges gave no reasons for rejecting the appeal. It remains to be seen what happens in the case of the defendant André E. The OLG had sentenced him to only two and a half years in prison. E. and the federal prosecutor’s office had appealed against this.

The Munich Higher Regional Court sentenced Zschäpe to life imprisonment on July 11, 2018 after more than five years of trial. The 6th Criminal Senate chaired by Manfred Götzl also certified that Zschäpe was particularly guilty. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office had also demanded that. She also pleaded with Ralf Wohlleben for twelve years in prison. Wohlleben and the defendant Carsten S. procured the Ceska 83 pistol with which the terrorist cell shot nine migrants. For Carsten S., who was the only defendant to show repentance and to testify comprehensively, three years were required. In the case of Holger G., who had supported the terror cell with a manipulated passport and read a confession during the trial, the federal prosecutor considered five years imprisonment to be necessary. In the case of André E., presumably a loyal friend of the terrorist cell for many years, the federal prosecutor’s office had pleaded for twelve years. The defendants’ defense lawyers had demanded lower sentences or even acquittal. Carsten S., who received a three-year youth sentence, is the only defendant who withdrew his appeal and served his remaining sentence.

In January 1998, Zschäpe went into hiding with the neo-Nazis Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos. The three initially hid in Chemnitz, then in Zwickau. In the underground they formed the terror cell “National Socialist Underground (NSU)”. From 2000 to 2007, Böhnhardt and Mundlos shot and killed nine small entrepreneurs of Turkish and Greek origin and a policewoman in Nuremberg, Hamburg, Munich, Rostock, Dortmund, Kassel and Heilbronn. The neo-Nazis also detonated a nail bomb in 2004 in Cologne’s Keupstrasse, which is dominated by Turkey. More than 20 residents and passers-by were injured, several of them seriously. Another bomb attack, carried out in Nuremberg in 1999, only became known during the trial at the Munich Higher Regional Court.

Looted cash in the amount of more than 600,000 euros

In order to finance life underground and the preparation of the attacks, Böhnhardt and Mundlos attacked a total of 14 branches of the Post and Sparkasse as well as a supermarket in Chemnitz, Zwickau, Stralsund, Arnstadt (Thuringia) and Eisenach. The terror cell stole more than 600,000 euros in cash. After the last bank robbery, on November 4, 2011 in Eisenach, the police found Böhnhardt and Mundlos. As in previous crimes, the two men were hiding in a mobile home. When a police car appeared, the neo-Nazis set the mobile home on fire. Then Mundlos first shot Böhnhardt and himself.

Zschäpe set fire to the shared apartment in Zwickau, which contained several weapons and parts of the booty from the raids. Since Zschäpe had spilled ten liters of gasoline, there was a deflagration in which part of the house wall flew away. After that the fire raged. An old, frail neighbor was in mortal danger, but was saved by relatives. Zschäpe left the house and sent the NSU’s confessional DVD with the perfidious Paulchen Panther video to newspapers, a mosque and other addresses by post. The woman wandered around Germany on trains for four days, and on November 8th she turned herself in to the police in Jena.

Chancellor Merkel asked the bereaved for forgiveness

The case shocked the Federal Republic. Böhnhardt, Mundlos and Zschäpe had been able to hide for almost 14 years. The security authorities had not been able to track down the three people in hiding. In addition, the crimes, especially the murders of migrants, were classified by the police and public prosecutors as alleged acts in criminal circles. The relatives of those killed faced harassing investigations for years. Chancellor Angela Merkel asked the bereaved for forgiveness at the memorial event for the victims in February 2012.