Human rights committee head slams Germany's neo-Nazi probe
by Compiled from Wire Services
ISTANBULMay 06, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Compiled from Wire Services
May 06, 2016 12:00 am
In a statement made one day before the third anniversary of a trial against the German neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground (NSU) for racism-linked murders, Mustafa Yeneroğlu, the head of Parliament's human rights committee, slammed the trial for failure to shed light on the murders.
The NSU gang is accused of killing eight German nationals of Turkish origin and a Greek man in racially motivated murders between 2000 and 2006. Beate Zschaepe is the only surviving member of the gang, which also carried out a bomb attack in a Turkish neighborhood in Germany and a string of robberies, and has stood trial since 2013. Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, two other members of the gang, killed themselves when the police closed in.
Yeneroğlu said in his statement quoted by state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) that the court's focus only on one person (Zschaepe), the disregard of claims of state support for the gang and the prosecution's disregard for requests by the victims' lawyers, "unfortunately failed the expectation that the murders will be comprehensively investigated."
German authorities revealed in 2011 that the NSU was responsible for the murders notoriously dubbed as the "döner killings" by the German media, and which police initially linked to domestic disputes in the Turkish community.
Yeneroğlu said, "The murders were followed by scandals in Germany, a country known as the cradle of a deep-rooted rule of law, a country with powerful law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The families of our citizens killed (by the NSU) were accused by police and intelligence of perjury and treated as criminals, while German authorities turned a blind eye to the racist neo-Nazi scene in the search for the killers."
Turkey is closely following the trial process, and Turkish lawmakers occasionally accuse Berlin of poor handling of the case. Yeneroğlu expressed concerns over the deaths of several eyewitnesses during the trial process. Two witnesses were found dead in what authorities described as a diabetes-induced coma and natural causes.
Yeneroğlu said Turkey expected Germany to fulfill Chancellor Angela Merkel's pledge for a full revelation of the gang's activities and connections. "Germany can really shed light on the case only when it investigates the role of security forces and intelligence agencies in the murders, and the true structure of the NSU," he said.
The NSU trial has been mired by a series of incidents overshadowing the case, such as the suspicious deaths of key witnesses who were familiar with the activities of the gang. German authorities were also blamed for failing to shed light on the possible connection between the gang and German intelligence, which recruited informants close to the gang from Germany's far-right scene.
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