Enlarge image
Deniz Yücel (archive image): Additional security measures by the publisher
Photo: Gerald Matzka / dpa
In the process of the "NSU 2.0" threatening letter, the accused Alexander M. threatened the journalist Deniz Yücel, who was present as a witness.
When Yücel asked whether M. had written certain emails, he replied that if he could, he would do "completely different things" with Yücel.
In the proceedings before the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court, the public prosecutor's office accuses the 54-year-old from Berlin of insults in 67 cases, attempted coercion and threats.
Yücel reported as a witness that he had received a total of five threatening emails.
Two of them had not previously been the subject of the proceedings.
He asked the accused whether he had written them, and was then threatened and insulted by him.
The presiding judge called M. to order and at the same time referred to the presumption of innocence that applied to him.
“The judge didn't want to include this incident in the record,” Yücel tweeted a little later: “I then insisted;
after all, this process is about threat.
The judge could follow.
The private prosecutor and the public prosecutor then also had the insults recorded.”
The series of threatening letters began in August 2018 with death threats against Frankfurt lawyer Seda Başay-Yıldız and her family.
The letters were signed "NSU 2.0," an allusion to the right-wing extremist terrorist cell National Socialist Underground (NSU).
Additional security measures for Yücel
Yücel said that after receiving the emails with death threats and insults, his publisher took additional security measures for him.
In general, he is used to threats from German or Turkish right-wing extremists.
He was worried about the suspicion that the police, as an armed state force, could be involved - personal data had been requested from other mail recipients on police computers.
Yücel also criticized the Hessian State Criminal Police Office (LKA), which had turned to him in such a strange and disconcerting way during its investigations in terms of form and content that he had not answered.
The cabaret artist Idil Baydar was also invited as a witness, but had canceled according to the court.
ptz/dpa