Terrorism victims compensated
October 29, 2012
Victims of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorism group have been awarded 832,000 euros ($1.1 million) in compensation. The decision comes from the German Federal Office of Justice, according to a report published Monday by the daily Osnabrücker Zeitung.
Based in Zwickau, in the eastern state of Saxony, the NSU was responsible for killing nine Turkish and Greek immigrants between 2000 and 2006, as well as the 2007 fatal shooting of a police officer and attempted murder of her colleague in Heilbronn.
The group is also accused of the 2001 and 2004 Cologne bombings (2004's pictured above), as well as 14 bank robberies.
The Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper confirmed a March 2012 justice office letter that said spouses and children of those killed in the attacks would be awarded 10,000 euros and siblings 5,000 euros. Families will also be reimbursed for funeral expenses.
The family of a police officer murdered last year was awarded 25,000 euros, and her injured colleague 10,000 euros. The survivors of two bombings in Cologne received 140,000 euros in total.
The neo-Nazi group's run of violence ended when the last core member, Beate Zschäpe, turned herself into the police last November. Two of her fellow members killed themselves in their apartment shortly before, after a bank robbery attempt. Zschäpe is suspected of having subsequently set fire to the apartment.
dr/jr (epd, AFP, dapd, dpa)