BGH rejects appeals: judgment against NSU helpers is final

The mammoth trial of the right-wing extremist NSU terror series has finally been finalized. The BGH confirmed the sentence of two and a half years against NSU supporter André E.

The judgment of the Munich Higher Regional Court against the NSU helper André E. from July 2018 is final. The Federal Court of Justice rejected the appeals made by the Attorney General and the defendant himself. This means that the entire Munich judgment on the right-wing extremist terror cell “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) against a total of five defendants is final.

The BGH had rejected the appeal of the main defendant Beate Zschäpe in August without a prior hearing. She is legally sentenced to life imprisonment as an accomplice in the racially motivated series of murders. The Munich Higher Regional Court had also determined the particular gravity of the guilt in her case. The judgments against three other NSU helpers have also been legally binding for a long time.

Ten murders

The neo-Nazi terror cell had roamed Germany murderously for years. Her victims were nine tradespeople of Turkish and Greek origin and a German policewoman. Zschäpe’s friends Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt also carried out two bomb attacks with dozens of people injured. They killed each other in 2011.

Thus, the E. case was the first and foreseeable only one that the Federal Court of Justice negotiated. The background to this is that the Federal Prosecutor’s Office also appealed here – the sentence was far too low for them. The 42-year-old himself demanded an acquittal.

BGH sees no legal errors of the OLG

The OLG judges considered it proven that E. had organized several train cards for the NSU trio in 2009, 2010 and 2011, which were issued to him and his wife – but carried photos of Böhnhardt and Zschäpe. At that time he is said to have assumed that Zschäpe, Böhnhardt and Mundlos had merged with terrorist intentions.

In 2000 and 2003, according to the OLG ruling, E. had rented mobile homes that the NSU used in two robberies and one attack in Cologne. He also gave Zschäpe his wife’s ID in 2007 so that she could present herself to the police with false personal data when a witness was heard. He also accompanied her to the appointment. From the point of view of the Munich judges, however, he had no idea at the time of the terrorists’ plans. You therefore acquitted E. on these points.

However, the BGH did not recognize any legal errors or, for example, gaps in the arguments of the OLG, as the presiding judge said. He rejected both revisions. The detailed written justification for the judgment is expected to be published in January.