A confidante of NSU terrorist Beate Zschäpe must stand trial before the Dresden Higher Regional Court (OLG) for supporting a terrorist organization, contrary to a previous decision. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe opened a main trial at the Higher Regional Court in Dresden, as the court announced.
Decision of the OLG reversed
The OLG had rejected this last October. Despite her close friendship with Zschäpe, it would not be possible to prove that the accused knew about the murders committed by the "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) at the time of her acts of support, the OLG stated at the time. However, proceedings were opened before the Zwickau Regional Court for aiding and abetting particularly serious extortion.
The Federal Supreme Court has now reversed this decision following an appeal by the Federal Public Prosecutor General. The competent senate also saw sufficient suspicion with regard to the subjective offense of supporting a terrorist organization. The Higher Regional Court must now hold a main trial.
Accused allegedly knew about NSU murders
In February 2024, the federal prosecutor brought charges against the wife of the legally convicted NSU supporter André E.. According to a statement, she was accused of having known about the NSU's racially motivated murders since the beginning of 2007 at the latest and of having provided Zschäpe with her health insurance card and personal details from September 2008. She is also alleged to have assisted in the collection of a mobile home used by the NSU in the last robbery in Eisenach on November 4, 2011.
Her husband André E. was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in 2018. The judges of the Munich Higher Regional Court considered it proven that E. had organized several train tickets for the NSU trio between 2009 and 2011, which were issued to him and his wife but showed photos of Zschäpe and Uwe Böhnhardt. However, they acquitted him of charges including aiding and abetting attempted murder.
NSU committed murders throughout Germany
The NSU was a neo-Nazi terror cell consisting of Zschäpe, Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, which carried out ten murders throughout Germany for years from 2000 onwards without being recognized. Their victims were nine businessmen of Turkish and Greek origin and a German policewoman. Mundlos and Böhnhardt also carried out two bomb attacks in Cologne, injuring dozens of people. The two killed themselves in 2011 to avoid arrest - only then was the NSU discovered.
Zschäpe was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 after a trial lasting a good five years. André E. was one of four other co-defendants in the trial. The Federal Court of Justice rejected all appeals against the verdict.
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