BGH judgment on NSU helpers: Wohlleben has to go back to prison

Status: 11/22/2022 2:36 p.m

The finally convicted NSU supporter Wohlleben has to start his remaining prison sentence and serve it until further notice. The BGH refused to suspend the remaining detention on probation.

The convicted NSU supporter Ralf Wohlleben has to go back to prison. According to a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe, the remaining three years and four months of his prison sentence will not be suspended for the time being.

Wohlleben had procured a pistol for the right-wing extremist cell of the National Socialist Underground (NSU). Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos shot nine men with this pistol. Wohlleben was therefore sentenced to ten years in prison by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Munich in July 2018 for being an accessory to murder in nine cases. The BGH had confirmed this judgment in August 2021, making it final.

Three years and four months were still missing

At that time, the ten-year prison sentence was a little more than three years and four months short: Wohlleben had already been in custody for almost six years and eight months, which counted against the prison sentence imposed. After serving two-thirds of a sentence, it is possible to have the remainder suspended. The requested welfare after the BGH decision in Munich.

He remained at large until the Munich Higher Regional Court had decided. With a decision of September 1, the court rejected Wohlleben’s application to suspend the remaining sentence on probation. He lodged an immediate appeal with the Supreme Court.

BGH dismissed the appeal

The BGH today again rejected this complaint. “Because of the very high weight of the legal interests threatened by a possible recidivism”, “particularly strict requirements must be made here with regard to the expectation of future impunity”. The judges see the risk “not in their own acts of violence, but in the future as inconspicuously as possible supporting acts of violence by others” from the right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi scene.

The Munich decision is now final and Wohlleben has to serve the remainder of his sentence. At the earliest six months after the Higher Regional Court decision, i.e. early March 2023, he could apply again for suspension on probation.

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