NSU terrorist: Zschäpe should remain in prison until at least 2035

dpa The convicted right-wing terrorist Beate Zschäpe, who has been in prison since November 2011, is expected to remain in prison until at least 2035. The Munich Higher Regional Court set the so-called minimum period of serving at a total of 24 years. In addition, the court refused to suspend further execution of the sentence on probation, as the court in Munich announced. The decision is not yet legally binding - the defense and the federal prosecutor's office can lodge an appeal against it.

Zschäpe was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Higher Regional Court in 2018 as an accomplice in the so-called NSU murder series. The court also noted the particular gravity of the guilt. This meant that early release from prison after 15 years was virtually impossible. Zschäpe, who was taken into custody in November 2011, had now applied for early release in view of the expiry of this period. At the end of August, she was brought to Munich from the Chemnitz correctional facility in Saxony for a hearing. Zschäpe's lawyer Mathias Grasel had called for a prison sentence of no more than 20 years.

The Higher Regional Court now decided that the “circumstances” that emerged during the execution were not of such importance that they could compensate for the “extraordinarily high level of guilt” to such an extent that there was no longer any need to enforce the sentence after the statutory minimum period of 15 years had been served. Therefore, a suspension of the remainder of the sentence on probation is not an option.

The “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) was a terrorist cell consisting of Zschäpe, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, which from 2000 onwards carried out ten murders undetected throughout Germany, five of them in Bavaria. Their victims were nine traders of Turkish and Greek origin and a German policewoman. Mundlos and Böhnhardt also carried out two bomb attacks in Cologne, injuring dozens of people. The two killed themselves in 2011 to avoid arrest - only then was the NSU exposed. Zschäpe, the only survivor of the trio, was convicted as an accomplice, even though there is still no evidence that she was at a crime scene herself.