Marko G. maintains an attitude. Only the smile of the former elite policeman becomes a little narrower than the prosecutor before the district court in Schwerin is not demanding a suspended sentence, but a prison sentence of two years and ten months.
Marko G. had heaped around 55,000 rounds of ammunition and numerous weapons, including a submachine gun, in his house and on his property in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The prosecutor sees it as proven that the 49-year-old has violated the War Weapons Control Act, the Weapons and Explosives Act. Marko G. has admitted the allegations.
"We follow the confession," says prosecutor Thorsten Kopf - if not in all points. The fact that Marko G. only collected the weapons and ammunition for himself does not relieve him. The accused had procured the weapons and ammunition to prepare with the members of the chat groups "Nordkreuz" and "Nord.com", which he had founded, for an expected "Day X", on which Germany would sink into chaos.
The prosecutor also does not believe that the members of the groups were just apolitical "preppers". Prosecutor Kopf does not speak of right-wing radicalism; only from the fact that he does not take Marko G. off, that every extreme attitude is alien to him.
"He went where it hurt"
Defense becomes clearer: "We have no political process here," says defense lawyer Robert Kain. It is nonsense that the public prosecutor thinks that Marko G. wanted to use the weapons and ammunition to achieve the goals of his chat groups. "What nonsense," says Kain: "What goals?"
Marko G. was a member of the Special Operations Command (SEK) of the State Criminal Police Office in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. "He went where it hurt, every time with the danger: I'm about to be shot," says his defender. "Of course we have nobody here who wanted to change the order in this country."
The investigators had found, among other things, a picture of Adolf Hitler on the defendant's cell phone, which Marko G. had sent to another man on April 20, 2017, the dictator's birthday, saying "Happy Birthday". A year earlier, G. had sent the same acquaintance a picture of soldiers aiming at a person lying on the ground. The words: "Asylum application rejected."
Defender Kain tries to appease. Everyone knows that, he says, when "a few funny pictures" are sent to them on their cell phones. He calls "xenophobic, contemptuous women" that reached you on Christmas or New Year's Eve and which you sometimes pass on.
The lawyer speaks of "a few cartridges"
"Marko G. is not a right-wing radical," says defender Ullrich Knye. Neither was there an organization on the dock that was preparing for a day X terrorist attack, as some would suggest. As preppers, the chat members only wanted to arm themselves before a crisis or disaster. Marko G's commitment to the basic democratic order of the Federal Republic of Germany was meant seriously, as was his confession based on repentance. "He has long recognized his mistake of protecting himself from all kinds of threats."
Marko G. had violated the War Weapons Control Act, the defenders also admit that. But they are assuming a less severe case. After all, he didn't have a working tank in the garden, just "an Uzi, a Winchester rifle and a few cartridges," said Kain.
The opinion of the public prosecutor's office that Marko G. was particularly dangerous due to his training as a SEC officer, sniper and shooting coach was absurd. "With whom would such weapons be in safer hands than with Mr. G.?" Asks Kain. It's supposed to be a rhetorical question. As a soldier and then as a police officer, his client had shown "in 30 years' service for this country" that he could handle weapons responsibly.
Marko G. does not fail to recognize that he harmed the police. But the public prosecutor's office is exaggerating if it pretends that the population has almost lost confidence in the police because of him.
"Can it be that Marko G. is the pawn sacrifice here?" Asks Kain. Then he comes to the investigation by the Attorney General against two members of "Nordkreuz" and "Nord.com". It is being investigated on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that could endanger the state. Marko G. is only a witness in the trial, not the accused. The Attorney General suspects the two men of using the expected "Day X" as an opportunity to kill "representatives of the political left-wing spectrum".
"The trial has been beating up for two years," says defender Kain, "there can't be so much going on." He adds sarcastically: "Thank God you have Mr. G. - and an Uzi."
The defenders are demanding that Marko G. be sentenced to "well under two years" imprisonment. The judges announced their verdict on Thursday.
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