German court's NSU verdict, a 'total disappointment'

By Mumin Altas

ANKARA

The Turkish justice minister on Thursday said a German court's verdict on the neo-Nazi NSU murders is a "total disappointment."

"Yesterday's verdict on the neo-Nazi NSU terror cell case in Germany is a total disappointment," Abdulhamit Gul said on his Twitter account.

Gul said the trial failed to shed lights on the racist terror attack which claimed the lives of eight Turkish citizens.

Gul also criticized German authorities of covering up the case's links with official institutions despite the existence of certain reports.

"No one should expect us to believe that the NSU organization is made up of just three people. It should not have been the point reached in a case ongoing for years with tens of thousands of pages of documents, hundreds of witnesses and a total of 438 hearings," Gul said.

"The verdict has not eased the pain in the hearts of our people who lost their relatives but aggravated it more and more. What is expected from Germany, which is a member of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights is to investigate these murders, for which there are serious allegations that some officials are also involved in it," Gul said, adding that Turkey would continue to follow the issue.

The neo-Nazi NSU killed eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek citizen, and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, but the murders remained long unsolved. The group also carried out bomb attacks targeting shops owned by immigrants in Cologne.

On Wednesday, Munich’s Higher Regional Court sentenced neo-Nazi Beate Zschaepe to life in prison for the terrorist group NSU’s murders and bomb attacks targeting Turkish immigrants.

Andre Emminger, who rented caravans for the group which were used during the murders in 2000-2007, was given a prison sentence of two years and six months.

Two other suspects -- Holger G. and Carsten S. -- who admitted providing support to the group in the past and cooperated with the police, also recived lighter sentences.

Holger G. was sentenced to three years in prison, and Carsten S. was sentenced to three years under the juvenile penal code.

Ralf Wohlleben, a main supporter of the terrorist NSU who was charged with providing the gun used in the murders, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.