Confused world of thoughts: Defendant André M. (archive picture) on one of the days of the trial
Photo:Jörg Carstensen / dpa
André M. only whispers. His defense attorney is sitting in room 500 of the Berlin Regional Court not a meter away from him and still has to ask several times on Tuesday in order to understand his client's words. André M. last drank and ate two days ago. He could hardly concentrate, was very weak on his legs and suffered from dizziness. Defense attorney Thomas Penneke requests that the accused's ability to stand trial be checked by a doctor. The phobia of his mandate had broken through again, "his fear of swallowing, of suffocating," says Penneke.
The presiding judge Thorsten Braunschweig seeks direct conversation. "Mr. M., how are you now? Do you have a headache? Are you dizzy?" No reaction. "Can you understand me?" André M.'s mouth moves. His defense attorney bends over to him. It takes time for him to understand the answer. "Halfway," it says. The court pauses the hearing for ten minutes to deliberate. Ten minutes become 30.
André M., 32, has had to answer in court since April. The man from Halstenbek in Schleswig-Holstein is said to have sent dozen threatening emails under the pseudonym "National Socialist Offensive". In it, the sender threatens bomb attacks and murder. In three cases, according to the indictment, he is said to have agreed with another drohmail writer who sometimes calls himself "NSU 2.0", sometimes "Staatsstreichorchester", sometimes "Wehrmacht". Whether there really was such a collaboration between the "National Socialist Offensive" and "NSU 2.0" remains to be seen. The court temporarily suspended the proceedings for these three cases according to Paragraph 154, Paragraph 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as the individual sentences to be expected in the overall sentence that André M. will be punished "are not of great importance".
Killing fantasies and thoughts of suicide
After the interruption, the judge asks: "Is there a specific trigger that makes you feel bad?" Andre M. breathes an answer, his defense attorney gives it back: Yes, the trigger is that his client has applied to the penal institution (JVA) to get "music". This was not allowed to him. In addition, two jackets were taken away from him and there is said to have been a dispute with a prison officer about a blocked toilet. "He feels terrorized in the institution," says the defense attorney.
Only he knows whether it is actually just the inconvenience in pre-trial detention that bother André M. The previous day of the trial may also have left its mark.
Last week, André M's Internet acquaintance was invited as a witness. The young woman and the defendant sent countless voice messages with disturbing content from October 2018 until shortly before his arrest in April 2019. Countless messages were heard in the process. André M. told the woman about his killing fantasies and suicidal thoughts. In December 2018, they confessed their love. In March 2019, the woman received a threatening mail, signed "National Socialist Offensive". She suspects André M. to be the sender.
more on the subject
Beginning of the trial against "National Socialist Offensive": Mails full of hatred by Wiebke Ramm
Trial against alleged threat mail writer: The dark world of André M. Von Wiebke Ramm
32-year-old in court because of threatening emails: "Many would say he's right-wing extremist" Von Wiebke Ramm
Trial against alleged threat mail writer: Self-portrait of a psychopath by Wiebke Ramm
The young woman is mentally unstable. For her testimony, she was allowed to sit in another room of the court last week, her interrogation was carried out via video technology. It should have been the first time that André M. saw the woman while she was speaking. She is 27 years old. Like the defendant, she is dressed entirely in black.
"Have you ever met Mr. M. in person?" Asks the judge that day into the camera. "No," says the witness. "What do you know about Mr. M.?" He asks. She is silent, laughs helplessly, then she says: "I know that he has committed criminal offenses several times, that he is mentally unstable and lives with his parents." The judge asks about his interests. "Horror movies and stuff like that," she replies. And his political attitude? They would never have talked about it. "But I do think that it is more oriented to the right. If only because of the room decoration that I saw in photos." She does not say that he hung the walls of his room over and over with Nazi devotional items.
The sender's obsession for Helene Fischer
The judge asks about his taste in music. "He thinks German hip hop is very good." And what about pop music? She laughs: "Nope." The judge continues. Was Helene Fischer once an issue? The threatening e-mails from the "National Socialist Offensive" testify to the sender's obsession with the singer. The witness laughs. "No," she says, Helene Fischer never mentioned André M. The judge continues to ask. "Have you ever talked about explosives?" "He said he knew how to make something like that and that he had planned an attack once too." She doesn't say more.
In 2007 André M. is said to have planned an attack on an apple festival in his home country with a friend. A court acquitted the two of them from the allegation of dating to murder. The judges lacked evidence that an attack plan was really serious. A WhatsApp message that André M. wrote to the witness on November 8th, 2018 doesn't sound like a joke: "I'm sorry that the Apple Festival didn't work out at the time." And on November 23, 2018 he wrote: "I also do not rule out going out alone to kill."
While the woman speaks last week, André M. listens carefully. Concentrated, he looks at the television in front of him, on which she can be seen. He takes notes and has a lively exchange with his lawyer. A week later a completely different picture.
When the judges enter the room on Tuesday, André M. hardly seems to be able to get up from the dock. He can only stand on his feet with difficulty. He seems absent, his gaze is empty.
The court complies with the defense’s request. A doctor should now examine André M. for his ability to negotiate. "We will then see how it goes on," says the judge. This is not the first time he has appealed to the accused: "You really have to drink and of course eat something too, Mr. M., otherwise you will become weaker and weaker."
Icon: The mirror