08 July 2018•Update: 08 July 2018
By Ayhan Simsek
BERLIN
Turkey has called for justice for the victims of neo-Nazi terrorist group NSU ahead of a verdict in a major trial that revealed “institutional racism” problem in Germany.
“We hope that the result of the NSU trial would meet the expectations of all who want an end to such racist and xenophobic murders, and demand a fair decision that would satisfy people’s conscience,” Turkish Ambassador Ali Kemal Aydin told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.
“We want to trust the German justice system,” he added.
The NSU killed eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek citizen and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007 -- but the murders remained long unsolved, although the suspects were under the radar of a German intelligence agency since late 90s.
After a five year-long trial of the suspects, the NSU’s last surviving member Beate Zschaepe and four suspected accomplices, the Higher Regional Court in Munich is set to deliver its ruling on Wednesday.
Aydin underlined that families of the victims, their lawyers and many experts still believe that the NSU was not a three-member group, but had ties to a larger network of far-right extremists.
Many questions still remain unanswered,” he said, referring to speculations of a possible role or involvement of security or intelligence officials.
Aydin said the court’s ruling would also be significant for future efforts to uncover facts about the NSU, its motivations and possible links.
The shadowy neo-Nazi group was only revealed in 2011, when two members -- Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Bohnhardt -- reportedly committed suicide after an unsuccessful bank robbery and later police found guns and propaganda in their apartment.
Zschaepe has so far denied any role in the killings and tried to lay the blame on her friends.
The scandal surrounding the NSU has led to widespread criticism of police and security agencies in Germany, which were accused by opposition parties for tolerating right-wing extremists, stereotyping and discrimination against immigrants.
Until 2011, Germany’s police and intelligence services excluded any racial motive for the murders and instead treated immigrant families as suspects in the case, questioning them over alleged connections with mafia groups and drug traffickers.
While recent revelations have shown that German domestic intelligence agency had dozens of informants who had contacts with the NSU suspects, officials insisted that they had no prior information about the NSU terror cell and its suspected role in the killings.
Many questions over the murders remain unresolved, as dozens of secret files belonging to the domestic intelligence service were destroyed, soon after the 2011 death of Mundlos and Bohnhardt.
