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Trial of fictional NSU victim: fraudster or duped

2020-11-27T20:35:05.661Z


A lawyer represented a fictitious victim in NSU proceedings for years - and collected money for it. His defense lawyer speaks of "negligence" and good faith. He demands acquittal for the lawyer.


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The accused in court (archive image)

Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa

His client was not to be accused of fraud, but merely of "negligence".

Lawyer Ralph Willms did not know until the end that he represented a woman who never existed in the NSU trial before the Munich Higher Regional Court, says his defense lawyer.

In the trial of the fictitious NSU victim, the defense applied for an acquittal at the Aachen regional court on Thursday. 

Nobody ever thought it possible that a co-plaintiff would be invented in order to earn money, says defense attorney Peter Nickel in his closing lecture, "not even the defendant".

Lawyer Willms was "in good faith" until the end that there was a client named Meral Keskin and that she was really the victim of the nail bomb attack on Keupstrasse in Cologne. 

"An unbelievable process"

Willms is not a deceiver, he is deceived.

He had been deceived by the actual victim of the attack, Atilla Ö.

Atilla Ö.

fooled him into believing Meral Keskin's existence.

He had "succeeded in an unimaginable way" in convincing not only Willms, but ultimately also the Munich Higher Regional Court that Meral Keskin existed.

"An unbelievable process that is probably unique in the history of justice." Willms had Atilla Ö.

familiar.

“I was naive.

I was saudoof, ”the defense attorney quotes his client.

In 2013, Willms applied in good faith to the Munich Higher Regional Court for Meral Keskin to be admitted.

In the same year he also applied in good faith to the Federal Office of Justice for compensation from the federal government in the amount of 5,000 euros for victims of the NSU.

Willms received a total of more than 211,000 euros for the phantom mandate. 

For the public prosecutor, this is fraud in a particularly serious case.

For the defense, Willms is the victim of Atilla Ö.

become.

Ö.

it was only about the money.

Willms have Atilla Ö.

the 5,000 euros compensation and an additional “at least 3,000 euros” were paid.

Atilla Ö.

can no longer comment on the allegations.

He died in 2017.

"Deceived and lied to"

Atilla Ö.

deceived and lied to Willms.

Atilla Ö.

also gave him the forged certificate Willms Meral Keskins used to seek admission to the private prosecution.

The original is on Atilla Ö.

issued.

The forgery is a torn A4 page.

The upper part with the name and address of Atilla Ö.

is torn off, the name Meral Keskin has been added by hand.

Not Willms, but Atilla Ö.

falsified the certificate.

Willms did not look at the "hair-raising certificate" at all, "says his defense lawyer.

The lawyer simply passed it on to his office staff, who then copied it and sent it to the Munich Higher Regional Court. 

There are a number of inconsistencies and anomalies in the Meral Keskin case.

In the view of the defense, all of the contradictions are so obvious that this speaks not against, but rather for Willms.

"If my client had wanted to cheat," says Nickel, he would have done it more skillfully.

After the NSU scandal was uncovered in October 2015, attorney Willms sought psychiatric treatment.

Doctors are said to have diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Memory gaps are a consequence of this disorder.

And with these gaps in memory, Nickel now explains contradicting information from Willms, whether and how often he met his alleged client and how much money he paid Atilla Ö.

want to have paid.

"This is not a tactic or a protective claim, but an expression of a mental illness."

Two other cases of the indictment relate to the Loveparade proceedings before the Duisburg district court.

In one of these cases, Willms is charged with attempted fraud.

Again he is said to have applied for the admission of a false co-plaintiff.

This time the man existed, but he shouldn't have been a victim of the Love Parade disaster either.

At that time, the responsible public prosecutor's office followed up, whereupon Willms withdrew his application for admission of the accessory prosecution.

His defense lawyer says: In this case too, Willms "did not act with the intention of cheating". 

The court wants to announce the verdict on Monday.

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Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2020-11-27

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