Oxford lawyer shot dead by Nazi in Berlin for being a foreigner
THE parents of a British lawyer shot dead in cold blood by a German neo-Nazi for being a foreigner have told of their battle for justice for their only child.
Oxford graduate Luke Holland, 31, was gunned down in the street outside a bar in Berlin after being confronted at random by self- styled ‘White Knight’ Rolf Zielezinski.
Friends of Mr Holland who were inside the bar heard a noise they wrongly thought was a car backfiring – then saw the victim lying on the pavement, dying in a pool of blood.
Police found a trove of illegal Nazi memorabilia around Zielezinski’s flat, and arrested him at a far-Right rally 12 hours after the killing, in September 2015.
But when it was suggested by public prosecutors that the father- of-three would only be charged with manslaughter on the grounds that the 63-year-old was drunk, Mr Holland’s grieving parents hired their own lawyer, who successfully lobbied officials to increase the charge to murder.
The couple, from Heaton Mersey in Stockport, claimed Foreign Office officials refused to intervene and the couple were forced to run a gauntlet of Nazi thugs as they went to and from court to hear Zielezinski’s trial.
In July last year he was jailed for 11 years and seven months after being convicted of murder.
Now Mr Holland’s parents have spoken at an inquest into his death in their home town about how they felt let down by the British authorities.
Phillip Holland, 63, a retired communications engineer, said: ‘We received no help from the Foreign Office and we were left on our own.
‘At first Zielezinski was going to be charged with manslaughter and would have received a maximum sentence of five years but we knew this wasn’t right.
‘We ended up getting a lawyer and we got really involved with the trial and we put pressure on the prosecutor to change the charge to murder.’
He said that while attending the Berlin trial the couple were ‘constantly being threatened by Nazis who would shout and
‘We wanted justice for our boy’
scream in our faces, adding: ‘It was really distressing and a difficult time for us – but we just wanted justice for our boy.’
When Zielezinski appeared in court to be sentenced, Mr Holland’s mother Rita held a photograph of her son against the glass dock. The killer stared at it for ten seconds, looked at her and said: ‘English.’
The inquest was told that Luke was fluent in Japanese and had worked for legal firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London as a corporate lawyer. After studying for an MBA at Oxford, he moved to Berlin to
help build up a new company. He began the fateful night out with a trip to the cinema with a friend. Later, they met another couple who suggested going to a local bar. When Mr Holland went outside to make a video call to a friend back in England whose birthday it was, he was blasted in the stomach by Zielezinski.
It emerged that a few weeks earlier Zielezinski had been involved in a heated row with ‘foreigners’ at a nearby bar.
Coroner Alison Mutch recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘Embassy staff have been in touch with Luke Holland’s family to provide support since his tragic death. We will continue to assist in any way we can.’