A German neo-Nazi was sentenced Thursday, January 28 to life imprisonment by a court in Frankfurt for the murder of an elected official from Angela Merkel's party defending the cause of migrants, who in June 2019 had awakened the specter of terrorist terrorism. extreme right in Germany.
Read also: Germany: a neo-Nazi sentenced to life for the murder of a pro-migrant elected official
This trial had historical significance because it was the first time since 1945 that the murder of an elected official attributed to a sympathizer of the extreme right was judged.
"
The murder conviction leaves no room for doubt about the guilt
" of Stephan Ernst, 47, explained the president of the Frankfurt court, Thomas Sagebiel, when the verdict was read.
The accused, however, was acquitted in another part of the trial concerning "
attempted aggravated murder.
In 2016 from an Iraqi refugee.
The prosecution announced that it would appeal against this acquittal.
On the night of June 2, 2019, Walter Lübcke, a 65-year-old elected official from the chancellor's conservative CDU party, smoked a cigarette on the terrace of his house in Kassel, in the regional state of Hesse, when he was killed in 'a bullet in the head shot almost at close range by Stephan Ernst.
After two weeks of investigation, Stephan Ernst, close to the neo-Nazi movement, is arrested.
He also accuses an alleged accomplice, Markus Hartmann, also on trial in this trial which began on June 16.
Stephan Ernst apologized to the family of the victim for this murder "
cruel and cowardly
" but having had a "
political objective
", according to his lawyer.
His alleged accomplice is accused of having trained him to shoot in the forest, "
including with the weapon used
" for the murder, without having been "
aware of the real plans
" of the murderer.
He was ultimately given a one-year and six-month suspended sentence for prohibited possession of weapons.
This light sentence did not satisfy the family of the victim or the prosecution, which announced to appeal the acquittal of Markus Hartmann in the homicide component.
This acquittal is "
incomprehensible and difficult to bear
", reacted Walter Lübcke's family through the voice of his lawyer.
The two suspects had, according to the prosecution, attended together, ulcerated, a public meeting during which Walter Lübcke had supported the generous migration policy decided by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
More than a million refugees were welcomed in Germany between 2015 and 2016. In the process, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made a sensational entry into parliament in the 2017 parliamentary elections. Stephan Ernst had been known to authorities since the late 1980s as a potentially violent neo-Nazi sympathizer.
As early as 1993, he was suspected of having planned a bomb attack against a hostel for asylum seekers.
In 2009, he participated in a race riot in Dortmund.
Despite this busy past, the intelligence services had stopped monitoring him in recent years.
Malfunctions
The investigation revealed another police error, already often accused in the past of appeasing neo-Nazis: they did not report to the authority issuing permits to carry weapons that the alleged accomplice was a still active member of the ultra-right.
This enabled him to obtain pistols and rifles.
The parliament of Hesse will conduct investigations into the dysfunctions and failures of the investigation.
The murder of Walter Lübcke has awakened the specter of "
brown
"
terrorism
in Germany.
Underestimated in the 2000s by the authorities despite several murders, in particular of Turkish immigrants, by the neo-Nazi group NSU, the threat is today perceived as a major challenge for internal security.
In December, a far-right sympathizer was sentenced to life imprisonment for nearly committing a massacre in a synagogue in Halle and then ultimately killing two people nearby.
In February 2020, a man killed nine people of foreign origin in two bars in Hanau, near Frankfurt, before committing suicide.
Finally on Wednesday, the German justice opened the way for the trial of a sympathizer of the extreme right suspected of having considered attacking elected officials and Muslims.