Neo-Nazi convicted in a series of migrant murders in Germany

MUNICH – A German court on Wednesday declared the main defendant guilty of a series of neo-Nazi killings more than a decade ago – a high-profile trial that raised new questions about the treatment of migrants at home. a time when Germany is grappling with an unprecedented influx of refugees and unfailing support for a far-right party anxious to keep the country white.

The Munich court sentenced Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the National Socialist underground group, to life imprisonment. the murders of 10 people – most of the migrants – who were shot dead between 2000 and 2007. The name of the group, often abbreviated as NSU, alludes to the Nazi party of Adolf Hitler.

Zschaepe was also found guilty of belonging to a party. terrorist organization, bombings that have injured dozens and several less serious crimes, including a series of robberies. Four men were also found guilty of supporting the group in various ways and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 2 1/2 to 10 years.

The verdict was widely praised by the families of the victims as well as by anti-racist and political activists. The verdict "is a very important first step," said Gamze Kubasik, the daughter of Mehmet Kubasik, who was shot dead by Zschaepe's two accomplices in the western city of Dortmund on April 4, 2006. "I just hope that all other NSU supporters will be found and sentenced. "

Uli Grotsch, a center-left Social Democratic MP The party that participated in a parliamentary inquiry into the authorities' handling of the case said that many questions remained unanswered.

"Parents want to know why their father, brother or son should die," said Grotsch. adding that Zschaepe and his two dead accomplices – Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt – were to have many supporters. "We are dealing with a well-organized neo-Nazi network that always operates in secrecy and we can not rule out that a series of murders like that of the NSU can happen at any time."

Zschaepe was arrested in 2011, shortly after setting fire to the apartment she, Mundlos and Boehnhardt shared in the town of Zwickau. A few hours earlier Mundlos had killed Boehnhardt and then himself in what the investigators thought was an attempt at escape.

The trio was hidden in 1998, resolving to kill people "for anti-Semitic or racist motives" in order to intimidate. According to the presiding judge of the Munich court, Manfred Goetzl

no evidence was found proving that Zschaepe had been physically present during the robberies and attacks, Goetzl declared his contribution to the crimes of the trio during his trial. He notably cited the role of Zschaepe in the broadcast of a macabre video in which the National Socialist Underground claimed responsibility for the murders after the death of his accomplices. With a cartoon character "Pink Panther", the video contained images that men had taken as their dead or dying dead.

Eight of those killed were ethnic Turks, shaking the Turkish community of three million people in Germany and provoking angry condemnation Mehmet Daimaguler, a lawyer for the relatives of the victims, said that "for my clients it was important to understand why the state did not protect them. "

For years, the country's security agencies did not consider a possible far-right motive behind the murders and bombings , focusing instead on whether victims had links to organized crime – a line of inquiry for which there has never been any evidence

"Daimaguler.

The myriad of errors committed by the German authorities, as well as their use of far right paid informants and shredding documents related to the case after the neo-Nazi nexus was unearthed, did the Le Anti-migrant sentiment that underpinned the ideology of the group was particularly strong in East Germany in the early 1990s, when Mundlos, Boehnhardt and Zschaepe were in the late teens and early the 1920s. The period saw a series of attacks against migrants and the rise of far right parties.

Anti-racist activists drew parallels between this era and the violence directed against asylum seekers in Germany in recent years. Emergence of the far right Alternative for Germany. The party arrived third last year after campaigning against immigration with posters of a pregnant white woman and the slogan: "New Germans, we will manufacture them ourselves."

The Central Council of German Jews, Josef Schuster, warned on Wednesday that the party's success in the elections has given extremist right-wing extremists a platform in parliament and therefore new opportunities for to undermine our democracy. "

German Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer This should be a lesson and a task for us to fight extremist extremism right in Germany by all means necessary." [19659004AsJudgeGoetzlreadtheverdictsagroupoffar-rightactivistsapplaudedAndreEmingerreceivedasentenceinferiortothatexpected

Eminger, who provided the National Socialist Underground with many identity documents and rented mobile homes that they used to travel around the country and commit their crimes, smiles to his supporters.

A few hours later, the court ordered Eminger, who was described by his lawyers as a committed national socialist, released while possible appeals are pending