Beate Zschaepe pleaded innocence over a racist killing spree in a final plea Tuesday before her verdict next week.
Turning to the presiding judge in the mammoth five-year trial in Munich, she said: "Please don't judge me for something that I neither wanted nor did."
Zschaepe, 43, stands accused of complicity in 10 deadly shootings carried out by the other two members of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a far-right terror cell.
The two gunmen -- Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, both Zschaepe's former lovers -- targeted mostly Turkish immigrants in a string of attacks between 2000 and 2007. Both died in 2011 in an apparent murder-suicide.
Prosecutors have accused Zschaepe of being an active NSU member who helped the two men by covering their tracks, handling finances and providing a safe haven in their shared home.
The Munich court will on July 11 hand down its verdict and sentence in the trial of Zschaepe and four alleged NSU supporters.
The NSU case deeply shocked Germany, where security services had associated terrorism with Islamist and far-left militants, believing rightwing extremists were mainly involved in random street violence and arson. (more...)
No comments:
Post a Comment