Neo-Nazi murderer sentenced to life in Germany
MUNICH: A member of a German neo-Nazi gang was jailed for life yesterday for her part in the murders of 10 people during a seven-year campaign of racially-motivated violence.
Beate Zschaepe, 43, showed no reaction as the judge read out her sentence at the end of one of the most closely-watched court cases in Germany’s post-war history.
She was part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), whose members killed eight Turks, a Greek man and a German policewoman from 2000 to 2007, the higher regional court in Munich ruled.
The murders shook a country that believed it had learned the lessons of its past. A report later said police had “massively underestimated” the risk of far-right violence. The judges said Zschaepe bore “particularly heavy guilt” and handed her the heaviest possible sentence.
She had denied any knowledge of the murders during the five-year trial. But she said later she regretted not stopping two male members of the gang, Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, from carrying out the killings.
Those men killed themselves in 2011 when police discovered the gang by chance.
Prosecutors said she had played a key role behind the scenes, planning the crimes and arranging money and alibis.
“This is a just punishment for the NSU’s cold-blooded and unprecedented series of crimes,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.
“What the perpetrators did cannot be made up for. The victims will never be forgotten,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
He said Germany needed to tackle racist violence with diversity and the strength of law.
Zschaepe was also found guilty of membership of a terrorist organisation, of being a co-perpetrator in two bombings, and of arson. Zschaepe’s lawyer, Mathias Grasel, said he would appeal.
“The verdict is wrong!” Grasel said. “Conviction for complicity is legally untenable. Fact is: Ms Zschaepe was demonstrably present at no crime scene and never fired a weapon or detonated a bomb.”
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the trial had not uncovered the full story of the murder of its citizens and the other victims.
Relations between Germany and Turkey deteriorated sharply after Ankara’s crackdown on suspected supporters of a failed military coup in 2016, but have begun to improve lately.