German justice hits another wall, court releases accomplice of neo-Nazi NSU murderers
Ralf Wohlleben, who was convicted of supplying the pistol that the German neo-Nazi gang NSU used in the murders of eight Turks, has been released by a Munich court, one week after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison
German judges ordered the release of Ralf Wohlleben, a key accomplice of the NSU neo-Nazi gang which killed 10 people, including eight Turks. Convicted of supplying the pistol that the gang used in murders, Wohlleben’s release has become the latest example of the German justice system’s failure
IN A VERDICT likely to anger the families of victims, a German court yesterday ordered the release of Ralf Wohlleben, who was convicted of aiding the neo-Nazi gang, the National Socialist Underground (NSU). Wohlleben was sentenced to 10 years in prison last week by a Munich court for supplying the pistol used in the NSU’s murders of eight Turks and a Greek man, mainly for racist motives. The gang also killed a Ger- man policewoman and was charged with a bomb attack on a Turkish neighborhood in Germany. Alongside Wohlleben, the NSU’s only surviving member Beate Zschaepe was sentenced to life. The Higher Regional Court assessing an appeal by the defense lawyer for Wohlleben deemed the suspect was no longer a flight risk. Judges ruled that he already spent six years and eight months in custody, two-thirds of his sentence, making him eligible for conditional release. He walked out of Stadelheim Prison yesterday morning. A spokesman for the court said the defendant would serve three years and four months at most if his conviction was upheld. The 43-year-old man, who was a member of Germany’s far-right scene, was “a guide” for the gang, prosecutors have said during the trial process. He is the second person to be released in the case. Andre Eminger, who arranged rental and mobile homes for the NSU was ordered to be released by the court announcing a final verdict in the lengthy case last week.
EMINGER has already served his time - two and a half years - in pretrial detention. Carsten S. who is accused of physically handing the gun Wohlleben supplied to the NSU and Holger G., another accomplice of the gang, was sentenced to three years in last week’s final hearing.
Wohlleben’s release faced criticism while authorities assured the public that he would be kept under surveillance. “There could hardly be a harsher blow against the relatives and victims,” said Niema Movassat, a lawmaker for the Left Party, on Twitter. The top security official in Wohlleben’s home state of Thuringia warned that Wohlleben, who was steadfast in refusing to help investigators, would be kept under strict surveillance. “He is a hero in that [far-right] scene - he always kept silent,” Stephan Kramer, head of Thuringia’s domestic intelligence service, told RND media group. “We will keep a close eye on him.”
The neo-Nazi gang was mainly composed of Beate Zschaepe, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt. Mundlos and Bohnhardt took their lives when the police closed in on them. Zschaepe had set a house she shared with Mundlos and Bohnhardt on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence related to the crimes of the NSU in 2011 before turning herself into police.
The trial started five years ago, but it failed to respond to allegations of a coverup of intelligence services’ ties to the gang and the neo-Nazi scene in general. Critics of the case claim police and intelligence services hired people from the neo-Nazi scene as informants trying to erase their tracks leading to the NSU case. Despite its links to many gangs in Germany’s neo-Nazi scene, the NSU apparently went unnoticed for years, from the late 1990s to 2011. Authorities initially blamed domestic disputes in the Turkish community for the murders and other crimes between 2000 and 2007. The unsatisfying conclusion of the trial has drawn reactions from Turkey, families of victims and a number of German lawmakers. Gamze Kubaşık, daughter of Mehmet Kubaşık, one of the Turkish victims of the gang, has said that the verdict was an important step for the families of victims, adding that more needs to be done. “I hope other accomplices of the NSU will be found and tried,” she said after last week’s hearing.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told reporters after the verdict last week that although it was important that Zschaepe and the gang’s accomplices were sentenced, the process failed to reveal the “others behind the murders.” “Defendants openly admitted that they had the support of [German] intelligence and deep state, but who or which agencies were behind them was not investigated. It is safe to say that the court failed to shed light on the real culprits,” he said. “Who are the people behind these murders? Which agencies are involved? Those people should be sentenced as well,” Çavuşoğlu demanded.