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One of the accused in Berlin: A turbulent start to a process with an inglorious history
Photo: Christian Ender / picture alliance / dpa
"Stop right-wing terror," demanded demonstrators on Monday in front of the Berlin Criminal Court building.
In the courtroom, a defense attorney complains about his client's prior conviction.
According to lawyer Mirko Röder, Tilo P. did not commit the crimes he was accused of: "He is innocent."
And Wolfram Nahrath, a well-known right-wing lawyer and defense attorney for the third accused, wants his client, Samuel B., to get a deal with the court, since his client is only accused of "some banal damage to property."
The attorney wants the case to be dropped.
The court signals readiness for discussion.
Investigations remained fruitless for years
It is the turbulent start of a process with an inglorious history.
The investigative authorities have counted more than 70 right-wing extremist crimes in the Berlin district of Neukölln since 2013.
These include 23 arson attacks, mainly on cars, threats on house walls and Nazi graffiti.
The goal of the perpetrators is obvious: to intimidate people who are active against the right.
Investigations languished for years with no results.
Since this Monday, three neo-Nazis have had to answer before the extended lay judges' court of the Berlin-Tiergarten district court.
The indictment of the Attorney General's Office covers only individual acts of the series.
The main defendants Tilo P., 39, and Sebastian T., 36, are accused of arson, property damage and using license plates of unconstitutional organizations.
insomnia and heart attack
On the night of February 1, 2018, Ferat Kocak's car caught fire.
His red Smart was parked in the carport in front of his parents' house.
The flames damaged a second car and attacked the ledge of the house's gable roof.
Ferat Kocak woke up around three o'clock.
He was amazed at the bright glow outside the window and discovered his burning car.
He woke his parents and ran with them into the street in a panic.
Ferat Kocak, 43, has been campaigning against racism for years.
He has been a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for the Left Party since last autumn.
The images from that night haunt him to this day, he says outside the room.
He suffers from insomnia and has sought psychological help several times.
His mother suffers a heart attack three weeks after the crime and has to be resuscitated.
"It wasn't an attack on my car, it was an attack on the life and limb of my family and me," says Ferat Kocak outside the hall.
Since then he has led a life "in a state of alarm".
His parents fear further attacks on their son.
But Ferat Kocak fights on.
He was only admitted as a joint plaintiff in the process last Friday.
The district court had rejected his application, but after his lawyer Franziska Nedelmann complained to the district court, his private prosecution was admitted.
Three attacks against the bookseller
On that February night in 2018, it wasn't just Kocak's car that caught fire.
Heinz Ostermann's Peugeot also caught fire.
It was the third attack against the 65-year-old bookseller and co-founder of the "Neukölln booksellers against racism and right-wing populism" initiative.
In December 2016, the windows of his bookstore were smashed, in January 2017 the first car caught fire, and then his new one a year later.
"I could imagine that windows would be broken," Ostermann told SPIEGEL on Monday, "but not that my car would be burned down and a year later the next one.
I'm a bookseller.« Today he no longer parks his car unprotected on the street.
But he has not restricted his commitment to the right either.
“That was the aim of the perpetrators.
I didn't follow that."
Sights on the red Smart
According to the indictment, Tilo P. and Sebastian T. - possibly with another person - set fire to the cars of Ferat Kocak and Heinz Ostermann.
Before that, they are said to have gathered information about Kocak and spied on him.
Sebastian T., in turn, is said to have collected information about the bookseller Ostermann.
The Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution was on the heels of Tilo P. and Sebastian T. at the time.
The secret service noticed that they had a red Smart in their sights.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution informed the State Criminal Police Office almost two weeks before the crime.
Nobody informed Ferat Kocak, the owner of the red Smart.
Insulted as "Antifa son of a bitch"
The Attorney General's Office also accuses Sebastian T. of having sprayed threats on the house facade of a married couple with another person in March 2019 at night, a little over a year later.
They are said to have left a Celtic cross, the word »head shot« and »9 mm for …«, supplemented by the names of the spouses, as a message.
The Celtic cross is a symbol of the right-wing extremist scene, "9 mm" is the designation for pistol ammunition.
Two other men received threatening messages on the walls of their homes that night.
The men were insulted by name as "Antifa bastard" and "Antifa son of a bitch", one of whom he also threatened with "9 mm".
Two years earlier, in the summer of 2017, Sebastian T. and the co-defendant Samuel B., 38, are said to have pasted posters and stickers to bus stops, street lamps, shop windows and advertising columns, among other things, on which the Nazi war criminal and Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess transfigured became.
Tilo P. and Sebastian T. are also said to have sprayed right-wing extremist slogans on a daycare center and the likeness of Rudolf Hess and SS runes on numerous walls and walls.
In the case of Sebastian T., there are also allegations of subsidy and commercial social benefit fraud.
"I don't believe him"
Sebastian T., former district chairman of the NPD, does not want to comment on the accusations in court.
Samuel B. is also silent.
And Tilo P., a former AfD member, leaves the talking to his lawyer.
The defense attorney protested his client's innocence.
The lawyer then turns to co-plaintiff Kocak on behalf of his client.
Tilo P. regrets what happened to Ferat Kocak and his family, says lawyer Röder.
And that P. hopes that one day they will be able to process what they have experienced.
But Ferat Kocak doesn't believe in Tilo P's sympathy. "I don't believe him," he says after the day of the trial.
"It's just tactics."