NSU: Bavarian state parliament sets up second committee of inquiry

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Head of the investigation committee Toni Schuberl: "It is good and important that there is no end to the investigation."

Photo: Tobias Hase / dpa

Between 2000 and 2007, the right-wing extremist terrorist cell »National Socialist Underground« (NSU) murdered nine people for racist reasons and one policewoman.

In November 2011, the NSU was uncovered, eleven years later, a second investigative committee in the Bavarian state parliament is now dealing with the series of murders and their backgrounds.

All parliamentary groups agreed to the appointment of the body.

One of the aims is to clarify possible connections between the NSU and the Bavarian neo-Nazi scene.

The neo-Nazi terror cell NSU, with members Beate Zschäpe, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, had been committing murders in Germany for years.

Mundlos and Böhnhardt killed themselves in 2011 to avoid being arrested.

The Greens and SPD had already taken the initiative for such a committee months ago.

"It is good and important that there is no end to the clarification," said Toni Schuberl, legal policy spokesman for the Green Party.

The Committee will do everything in its power to shed light on the matter.

Schuberl is to head the committee of inquiry, he is convinced that there is still enormous potential for right-wing extremism today, as reported by Bayerischer Rundfunk.

In addition, there are still numerous unanswered questions in the NSU complex, such as the first racially motivated bomb attack by the NSU in 1999 in a bar. It should also be clarified whether further supporters of the NSU can be found.

According to the state parliament, civil society initiatives were the decisive factor in setting up the committee of inquiry.

Last year, survivors such as the children of the killed Nuremberg florist Enver Şimşek, many lawyers in the NSU trial, actors from civil society and citizens from Nuremberg, Erlangen and Munich called for an investigative committee.

The series of murders and attacks was dealt with in court for more than five years before the Munich Higher Regional Court.

Zschäpe, the only survivor of the trio, was sentenced to life imprisonment as an accomplice at the end of the mammoth trial in July 2018 - even if there is no evidence that she was at one of the crime scenes herself.

The verdict, also against four co-defendants, is final.

At the same time, there were numerous investigative committees both at federal level and in several federal states that dealt with investigative errors and mistakes by the authorities.

However, many questions remain unanswered, especially with regard to other possible backers and supporters of the NSU terrorists.

kha/dpa