NSU victims' families sue Germany over probe errors
Rebecca Staudenmaier with DPA, Tagesschau
June 18, 2017
The families of two men murdered by a neo-Nazi group are suing for damages due to mistakes made in the probe. The families have argued that authorities could have arrested the trio earlier, preventing further murders.
NSU members Uwe Mundlos (L), Beate Zschäpe (C) and Uwe Böhnhardt (R)Image: dapd
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Members of the families of two men who were killed by the right-wing terror cell the "National-Socialist Underground" (NSU) are now suing over multiple investigative failures, German media reported on Sunday.
The district court in Nuremberg confirmed to news agency DPA that two cases filed against the German federal government and the states of Thuringia and Bavaria are pending.
German public broadcaster ARD also reported that the plaintiffs are family members of the NSU's first murder victim, flower-seller Enver Simsek, and the group's sixth victim, kebab shop owner Ismail Yasar.
Simsek and Yasar were allegedly shot dead by two of the NSU's members, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, in Nuremberg in 2000 and in 2005, respectively.
The NSU carried out a series of xenophobic and violent crimes between 2000 and 2007, including 10 murders, two bombings and 15 bank robberies.
A third NSU member, Beate Zschäpe, is accused of being involved in the crimes and for helping cover the men's tracks after the murders. Mundlos and Böhnhardt were found dead in November 2011 in an apparent murder-suicide.
"First, the Nazis destroyed our lives because the state could not or did not want to protect us," Simsek's son Abdulkerim told DPA.
"Then the state betrayed us once more," he said in reference to how the police treated his family following his father's murder. Investigators have been accused of being slow to follow leads pointing toward far-right involvement in the murders and criticized for limiting investigations to organized crime ties among immigrants to Germany.
Throughout Zschäpe's Munich trial - now in its fourth year - and several parliamentary inquiries, it became apparent that authorities wasted years chasing false leads and putting the victims' relatives under surveillance.
The families of Enver Simsek (top left) and Ismail Yasar (second from left on bottom) are seeking justice from the German stateImage: picture-alliance/dpa
Lawyer: Deaths could have been prevented
Both families are seeking 50,000 euros ($55,900) per family member in damages. The lawyer representing both families, Mehmet Daimagüler, told DPA that the complaints are based on "mishaps in the search for the underground NSU trio."
Daimagüler argued that both federal and state authorities could have arrested Mundlos, Böhnhardt and Zschäpe in 1998 and at the latest in 2000, thereby preventing the subsequent murders.
Furthermore, the state gave hundreds of thousands of euros to informants who used the money to support the neo-Nazi trio.
"Our case is based on the findings of numerous investigations" both from parliamentary inquiries and the evidence presented in the ongoing trial against Zschäpe in Munich, Daimagüler said.
The families of other NSU murder victims are expected to file similar complaints. Daimagüler added that should the case prove too difficult in German court, he is prepared to take the case to a foreign court and sue the German government from there.
Chronicle of the NSU murders
The crimes of the neo-Nazi terror cell and the way state authorities dealt with them, still reverberate today. DW gives you the background to an affair that has shaken Germany.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
A mysterious string of murders
For years, neo-Nazis of the right-wing organization National Socialist Underground (NSU) killed people across Germany. The suspects: Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt (center) and Beate Zschäpe. Their victims: eight people of Turkish origin, one Greek man and a German policewoman. Their motive: xenophobia. Until 2011, the German public was not aware of the scope of their crimes.
Image: privat/dapd
Unsuccessful bank robbery
The murder spree was uncovered on November 4, 2011, when Mundlos and Böhnhardt robbed a bank in the east German town of Eisenach. For the first time, they failed. Police officers surrounded the caravan in which the two men were holed up. A later investigation concluded that Mundlos first shot and killed Böhnhardt, then set the caravan on fire and killed himself.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Zschäpe turns herself in
Shortly after the death of Böhnhardt and Mundlos there was an explosion at Frühlingsstraße 26 in Zwickau, in the state of Saxony. Beate Zschäpe lived at that address together with the two bank robbers. Zschäpe allegedly set the house on fire to destroy evidence. Four days later, she turned herself in to the police. The terror suspect has been custody since that day.
Image: Getty Images
The truth comes out
In the ruins of the Zwickau flat, police officers found a self-made video in which the terror cell claimed responsibility under the name of the NSU, the National-Socialist Underground. The 15-minute video shows crime scenes and pictures of the victims killed by the right-wing terrorist group between 2000 and 2007.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
NSU claim responsibility
Famous cartoon character The Pink Panther hosts the amateur video, which is full of slogans of hatred against people with an immigrant background and which mocks the murder victims. Before her arrest, Zschäpe allegedly sent out copies of the video in which the NSU claimed responsibility for the crimes.
Image: dapd
Verbal slip-ups
Until 2011, the term "döner murders" was frequently used when reporting about the killings. Nothing was known about the connection between the individual cases, nor about the motive. There were rumors the victims were linked to the drug scene. But the NSU's video left no doubt. The term "döner murders" was chosen as Germany's "Unwort des Jahres" (doublespeak of the year) in 2011.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
NSU also behind Cologne pipe bomb
"The findings made by our security authorities so far show no indication of a terrorist background, but of a criminal milieu," said German Interior Minister Otto Schily on June 10, 2004. A day earlier, a pipe bomb explosion in Cologne left 22 people injured and many shops damaged. In 2011, it became clear: the NSU’s right-wing terrorists were also behind the Cologne bombing.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Memorial service in Berlin
On February 23, 2012, Germany commemorated the victims. At the ceremony at a Berlin concert hall, the focus was on the relatives of the victims. Semiya Simsek (right), the daughter of the murdered flower stand owner Enver Simsek, gave an emotional speech. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an official apology to the victims and promised them that all questions would be answered.
Image: Bundesregierung/Kugler
Memorial for Mehmet Kubasik
"Dortmund is a colorful, tolerant and welcoming town – and opposes right-wing extremism!" This statement was made by mayor Ullrich Sierau at the unveiling of the memorial stone for NSU victim Mehmet Kubasik in September 2012. The memorial was set up just meters away from the kiosk in which Kubasik was killed on April 4, 2006.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Solidarity with the victims
On November 4, 2012, exactly a year after the terror cell was uncovered, people in many German cities staged solidarity demonstrations against right-wing extremism. The protesters called for thorough investigations into the racially motivated murders - which in their view was not happening fast enough.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Beate Zschäpe lone survivor
Believed to be the last survivor of the NSU trio, Beate Zschäpe went on trial in May 2013.Over 800 witnesses were heard. Zschäpe did not speak for the first two and a half years of the trial.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Schrader
Life sentence
Beate Zschäpe was given a life sentence. She was found guilty of joint complicity in 10 counts of murder, arson, robbery, extortion, the formation of a terrorist organization and membership in a terrorist organization. Though there was no evidence that she herself was present at the scene of the crimes, the judges felt that the "particular severity of guilt" required for a life sentence applied.
Image: Getty Images/A. Gebert
The co-accused
Ralf Wohlleben received 10 years for procuring weapons for the NSU, co-accused Holger G. got three years for providing false identity papers. Another co-accused, Andre E, received two and a half years for providing the NSU with rail passes in his and his wife's name. He also allegedly rented a mobile home which the cell drove to Cologne to carry out a bombing.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/C. Stache
Long lasting impact
When conservative politician Walter Lübcke was murdered by a neo-Nazi activist in 2019, his name was also found on the 'list of enemies' for targetted killings. Lübcke had come under attack from the far-right following a speech he made in 2015 defending the decision to take in refugees from the Syrian war.
Image: Swen Pförtner/dpa/picture alliance
Securty agency failings
The federal and the state parliaments launched investigations to shed light on the security authorities' failures in the NSU case: The role of paid informants, the lack of cooperation between the various intelligence agencies and state interior ministries, which are responsible for police in the respective states, and allegations of systemic racism on the part of German authorities.
