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Beate Zschäpe (in July 2018): Sentenced to life imprisonment
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Peter Kneffel / dpa
Beate Zschäpe does not accept her final conviction for complicity in ten murders, two bomb attacks and 15 robberies by the NSU.
The 46-year-old sees her fundamental rights violated and has lodged a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court.
Your lawyers want to ensure that the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), as in the case of André E.
In the Zschäpe case, too, a date for the main hearing is set and a new decision is made on its revision.
The Munich Higher Regional Court sentenced Zschäpe as a right-wing terrorist to life imprisonment in July 2018 and determined the particular severity of her guilt. Three years later, in August 2021, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) dismissed its revision in all essential points as "obviously unfounded". The BGH Senate made a decision without a hearing. The defense considers this to be inadmissible.
"The 3rd Criminal Senate of the BGH changed its previous jurisprudence completely surprisingly and unpredictably for us in relation to an assumed complicity of Ms. Zschäpe and represented a new legal opinion," said defense attorney Mathias Grasel to SPIEGEL.
However, the defense was not informed of this in the appeal proceedings.
The constitutional complaint states: "The Senate would therefore have been required to hold a main hearing in order to give the defense the opportunity to defend itself against the proposed change in the case law."
The crux of the matter is complicity
Zschäpe was convicted as an accomplice, even if there is no evidence that she was present at one of the crime scenes. The OLG Munich is convinced that it was Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt who murdered, robbed and planted bombs. Zschäpe was involved in the planning of every act. She stayed in or near the shared apartment during the respective offense in order to destroy evidence in the event that Mundlos and Böhnhardt were arrested and to send the NSU confessional video. Just as she did on November 4, 2011 after the men killed themselves.
From the point of view of the defense, the BGH justified Zschäpes complicity essentially with her membership of the NSU and with her interest in the NSU achieving its right-wing terrorist goals.
"But an assumed general interest in the success of the crime is not enough," says lawyer Grasel.
According to previous jurisprudence, an essential contribution to Zschäpe's crime must be examined for each individual act in order to be able to convict her as an accomplice.
The complaint is signed by the lawyers Grasel, Wolfgang Heer and Andreas Lickleder.
It went to the Federal Constitutional Court on September 20.
Previously, the defense attorneys had filed a so-called hearing complaint with the BGH.
Both decisions are still pending.
