Neo-Nazi suspect to testify at NSU trial

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - The chief suspect of German far-right terror cell National Socialist Underground (NSU) will give a testimony next week, defense lawyers said on Tuesday.

Beate Zschaepe, who is accused of involvement in 10 murders committed by the NSU, will give a personal statement to the court, her attorney Mathias Grasel said.

Munich's Higher Regional Court has scheduled the next court hearing for July 3.

Zschaepe has been on trial since 2013, but has so far denied any role in the killings and tried to lay the blame on her friends.

The court is expected to give its ruling next month, after listening to Zschaepe’s statement and final arguments of her defense team.

The neo-Nazi group NSU killed eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek citizen, and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007 -- but the murders remained unresolved until 2011.

The German public first learned of the group's existence in 2011, when NSU members Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Bohnhardt, died in a murder-suicide following an unsuccessful bank robbery.

Zschaepe surrendered to police a few days afterwards, but not before she set fire to the apartment in Zwickau, eastern Germany, she had shared with the two men.

Until 2016, she exercised her right to remain silent. In September 2016, she let her lawyer read out a written testimony to the court. But so far she offered no new evidence about the murders or contacts of the NSU with other Neo-Nazi groups.

The scandal surrounding the NSU has led to widespread criticism of German security agencies, which were accused by opposition parties for tolerating right-wing extremists, and failing to prevent violent acts targeting immigrants.

Until 2011, Germany’s police and intelligence services excluded any racial motive for the murders and instead treated immigrant families as suspects in the case, questioning them over alleged connections with mafia groups and drug traffickers.

Recent revelations have shown that German domestic intelligence agency BfV had dozens of informants who had contacts with the NSU suspects since the late 1990s.

But officials insisted that they had no prior information about the NSU terror cell and its suspected role in the killings.

Many questions over the murders remain unresolved, as dozens of secret files belonging to the domestic intelligence service were destroyed, soon after the 2011 death of Mundlos and Bohnhardt.