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Germany: Terrorists on Trial

April 8, 2013

Beate Zschäpe, alleged to be the only surviving member of the far-right National Socialist Unterground terror cell, is to be the main defendant in what is already a highly publicized trial.

https://p.dw.com/p/18Btg
ALTERNATIV GESCHNITTEN: KARLSRUHE, GERMANY - DECEMBER 01: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Quality from source). Neo-Nazi Beate Zschaepe, who is currently in police custody, is pictured in this handout photo taken in 2011 and provided by the Federal Criminal Office on December 1, 2011 in Karlsruhe, Germany. German investigators are appealing to the public for information about Zschaepe, as well as fellow neo-Nazis Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos. The two men, who committed suicide in November following a bank robbery, are credited with a string of murders of foreigners and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007 and are though to be part of an organization called the National Socialist Underground (NSU). (Photo by Federal Criminal Office via Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images

Zschäpe is accused of complicity in the murders of ten people, including nine people of Turkish and one ethnic Greek. Also among the list of charges are bank robbery, arson and membership of a terrorist organization. Zschäpe denies having been an accessory to the crimes. Joining her in the dock are four more alleged accomplices. Public scrutiny of the trial is sure to be intense. Even the selection of spectators has been subject to criticism; as things stand, Turkish reporters will not be among them.

The courtroom where the trial against German Beate Zschaepe a member of the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Underground (NSU) will take place, is pictured in Munich March 15, 2013. An alleged member of the NSU, 38-year-old Zschaepe, will go on trial in Munich in April charged with the murders. The NSU is accused of murdering nine Turkish and Greek immigrants and a policewoman from 2000 to 2007. Two other NSU members committed suicide in late 2011 after a botched bank robbery. It was the discovery of their bodies in a caravan that first brought the connection between the murders over a seven-year period to light. REUTERS/Michael Dalder(GERMANY - Tags: CRIME LAW)
Image: Reuters