Murder case Lübcke: the origin of the murder weapon remains in the dark

The alleged seller of the murder weapon in the Lübcke murder case will soon have to answer in court. The investigators were able to trace the original origin of the weapons in the case NDR– However, information does not fully clarify.

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has completed the investigation into the weapons of the alleged murderer Stephan E. two years after the murder of the Kassel District President Walter Lübcke. The investigators apparently could not find out where the weapons originally came from, which were found on the neo-Nazi E. It is, among other things, a submachine gun and a pump gun. This emerges from the final report of the BKA, which the NDR is present.

However, Stephan E. commented on where he supposedly got the weapons from. According to his statement, he received the murder weapon, a “Rossi” brand revolver, from his friend Elmar J. from North Rhine-Westphalia. J. is also said to have sold him all the other firearms that were found in his weapon stash.

The alleged arms seller J. will soon have to answer in court. The trial of J. will begin in January next year at the Paderborn Regional Court, accused of negligent homicide and a violation of the Weapons Act because of the alleged sale of the murder weapon with ammunition to E. J. denies that he sold E. the murder weapon.

The trace of the murder weapon was lost decades ago

Apart from the question of how Stephan E. got hold of his weapons arsenal, the BKA tried to determine which channels and channels might be used to trade further weapons. After all, the officials noted in the final report that there was illegal arming of the right-wing extremist scene in the room. To NDR-Information the BKA had hoped for by investigating the weapons routes and information about as yet unknown supporters of the alleged Lübcke murderer. In order to lighten up E.’s environment, the investigation group (EG) “Lupe” was set up in the BKA after the act in 2019.

In their final report, the BKA investigators state that the trail of the murder weapon was lost in Switzerland decades ago. The last known, legal owner of the weapon who lived there could not say anything about the whereabouts of the revolver because of his age-related health.

The investigation of the origin would have been difficult overall, write the investigators. In the meantime, they had pursued the thesis that a 66-year-old from the vicinity of Bielefeld could have procured the weapons. The man was already on record for illegally possessing weapons. During a search in November 2019, the police found a large weapons and explosives store near the man. This took his own life after the search. The investigations were then unsuccessful, also because the man – as the BKA noted – had not kept a record of his illegal arms deals.

Further cases investigated

The BKA investigators had occupied themselves intensively with a submachine gun of the “Uzi” type, which was found in Es weapons bunker. The officials investigated similar cases from the right-wing political spectrum. Last year the BKA heard the founder of the right-wing prepper network “Nordkreuz”, Marko G. from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. G. was sentenced to a suspended sentence in 2019 for owning an “Uzi”. G. bought the weapon, he said, years ago at an arms fair in Kassel.

Investigators also checked another old case. In 2007 a functional part of an “Uzi” was secured from the neo-Nazi leader Thorsten Heise in Thuringia. The right-wing extremist E. and today’s deputy NPD federal chairman Heise both moved in the neo-Nazi scene in the triangle between Hesse, Lower Saxony and Thuringia. Here, too, the BKA examined the weapon part found at the time for DNA traces and fingerprints, compared serial numbers and manufacturers. However, there was no evidence of a connection between the cases.

The investigators also followed up on traces from the complex surrounding the terrorist group “National Socialist Underground” (NSU). According to the final report, there were no procedural references here.

Right-wing extremist Stephan E. was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court in January for the murder of CDU politician Lübcke. The verdict is not yet legally binding.