Woman charged over neo-Nazi murders in Germany
BERLIN: German prosecutors have brought murder charges against the woman believed to be at the heart of a neo-Nazi cell accused of killing 10 victims in seven years.
In a case that stunned Germany a year ago, the federal prosecutor Harald Range said on Thursday his office had finally filed the charges against Beate Zschaepe, 37, and four alleged accomplices with a court in Munich.
Ms Zschaepe is suspected of involvement in 10 murders, including the killing of nine men of Turkish or Greek origin between 2000 and 2006 and a German policewoman in 2007, as well as 15 armed robberies, arson and attempted murder.
She is the sole survivor of the far-right trio of militants that called itself the National Socialist Underground, which prosecutors have classed as a terrorist organisation.
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Two of the other four suspects are accused of accessory to murder, and the others of lesser charges related to crimes allegedly committed by the group.
''The NSU members saw themselves as a unified commando of killers which zealously carried out its murderous attacks with racist and subversive motives,'' Mr Range said in a statement, citing the nearly 500-page indictment.
He said they carried out ''execution-style murders'' to spread fear among those with foreign backgrounds and convince them to leave Germany.
The Munich Superior Regional Court said the charges would be presented to defence lawyers in the coming days to give them an opportunity to respond.
The court will then decide whether the case can proceed. Many of the victims lived in the southern state of Bavaria.
Ms Zschaepe and her alleged accomplices, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, who were reportedly linked in a macabre love triangle, are believed to have gone underground in 1998 after police discovered a bomb-making operation they ran.
They allegedly earned their living for 14 years with bank robberies. The two men shot themselves in a suicide pact after a heist on November 4 last year, according to prosecutors.
Ms Zschaepe is then believed to have set the flat they shared ablaze. Four days later, she turned herself in to police.
Agence France-Presse
Source http://www.smh.com.au/world/woman-charged-over-neonazi-murders-in-germany-20121109-2935h.html
In a case that stunned Germany a year ago, the federal prosecutor Harald Range said on Thursday his office had finally filed the charges against Beate Zschaepe, 37, and four alleged accomplices with a court in Munich.
Ms Zschaepe is suspected of involvement in 10 murders, including the killing of nine men of Turkish or Greek origin between 2000 and 2006 and a German policewoman in 2007, as well as 15 armed robberies, arson and attempted murder.
She is the sole survivor of the far-right trio of militants that called itself the National Socialist Underground, which prosecutors have classed as a terrorist organisation.
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Two of the other four suspects are accused of accessory to murder, and the others of lesser charges related to crimes allegedly committed by the group.
''The NSU members saw themselves as a unified commando of killers which zealously carried out its murderous attacks with racist and subversive motives,'' Mr Range said in a statement, citing the nearly 500-page indictment.
He said they carried out ''execution-style murders'' to spread fear among those with foreign backgrounds and convince them to leave Germany.
The Munich Superior Regional Court said the charges would be presented to defence lawyers in the coming days to give them an opportunity to respond.
The court will then decide whether the case can proceed. Many of the victims lived in the southern state of Bavaria.
Ms Zschaepe and her alleged accomplices, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, who were reportedly linked in a macabre love triangle, are believed to have gone underground in 1998 after police discovered a bomb-making operation they ran.
They allegedly earned their living for 14 years with bank robberies. The two men shot themselves in a suicide pact after a heist on November 4 last year, according to prosecutors.
Ms Zschaepe is then believed to have set the flat they shared ablaze. Four days later, she turned herself in to police.
Agence France-Presse
Source http://www.smh.com.au/world/woman-charged-over-neonazi-murders-in-germany-20121109-2935h.html
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