An investigation committee set up at the Bavarian parliament for a probe into crimes of the neo-Nazi gang National Socialist Underground (NSU) faces hurdles from the Bavarian state government, its members said earlier this week.
The NSU was accused of murdering 10 people, including eight Turks, in Germany between 2000 and 2007 in racially motivated killings. Its sole surviving member Beate Zschaepe was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of Turks, as well as a Greek man and a German policewoman during the gang’s killing and robbery spree that ended when its two other members committed suicide as the police closed in on them in 2011.
Toni Schuberl, a Greens politician who headed the committee was quoted by the German media that the state government blocked a more in-depth investigation into the crimes of the NSU, pointing out a “blackout” on files related to the crimes and restricting permits for the testimony of some witnesses.
The investigative committee recently wrapped up its work and questioned 80 witnesses, but its members say there are still unanswered questions regarding the gang.
The series of murders committed by the NSU is one of the most critical cases of racist violence in Germany, not only because of the executive-style killings but also the police’s approach to the crimes. Investigators were quick to link the murders to domestic disputes within the Turkish community and some were even attributed to PKK terrorists settling scores with people who betrayed them.
Moreover, family members of victims and their friends were subject to lengthy, humiliating investigations by police and treated as potential suspects for a long time. In the meantime, the media contributed to the faulty approach to the murders by calling them a casually racist name: “Döner killings.” Even after the neo-Nazi ideology of the gang was made clear following the conviction of Zschaepe, the renewed investigations and trial process was subject to criticism for failing to shed light on the connections of the NSU to Germany’s domestic intelligence community. Several informants recruited by the domestic intelligence agency were accused of having prior knowledge of the NSU’s crimes, and some were even present at the scenes of crimes immediately before the murders, according to probes.
The findings of the Bavaria committee conclude that earlier “investigation errors” by German authorities were partially responsible for preventing more crimes by NSU.
Holger Dremel, deputy chair of the committee, said they could not gain new insight into the matter. Dremel said they could not find evidence of an extremist network of supporters of NSU in the state.
Cemal Bozoğlu, a Greens member of the committee, said their investigation should not be the “end of the story” in the case. He said more investigation is needed to answer “questions” about NSU.
Arif Taşdelen, another committee member, said he found it difficult to believe that three members of NSU committed their crimes in Bavaria, “without assistance of others.”
