The 27-day trial of a woman and three men from the bamberg area, who are leading members of the now banned right-wing extremist group "weisse wolfe terrorcrew", has begun (WWT) in franken, goes into detail work.
On the third day of the trial, the state protection chamber of the bamberg regional court, headed by presiding judge manfred schmidt, also questioned a chief inspector of the state criminal police office from munich. Among other things, it was a matter of tracing the chat histories in various whatsapp groups evaluated by the criminal investigation department and the LKA. The defendants had exchanged information in the chats.
The LKA had become involved in the investigation of the right-wing extremists in 2015 at the request of the public prosecutor's office, shortly after they had been busted. Finally, the prosecution accuses the four neo-nazis of crimes such as bodily harm, violations of the explosives law and disturbing the public peace, but above all of forming a criminal organization. The LKA specializes in investigating such organizations.
At first, the testimony of the LKA officer left little doubt about individual accusations, such as that the accused peter F. (name changed) the procurement of illegal pyrotechnics, including two so-called one-kilo ball bombs from abroad, has been proven. Peter F. Had also admitted the purchase of explosives. "The investigation did not reveal that the items were obtained in order to commit attacks", the 48-year-old LKA official, however, admitted that. The neo-nazis are accused, among other things, of threatening an attack on an asylum facility in the east of bamberg in order to incite fears.
Criminal organization formed?
According to the LKA investigator, however, it was not clear from the chat histories that the list of individual acts of violence with which the defendants were charged was the planning of the WWT group. It is undoubtedly the case that crimes have been committed by the same group of people again and again. "However, I have not found evidence that the acts were subject to the will of an association."
So arrangements had taken place in different chats, partly also only between two persons. In his opinion, a decision to commit the crime was not made within the WWT group. However, he could not exclude that there had been other agreements, such as conspiratorial walks in the woods without cell phones.
The prosecution's allegation is that individuals had joined together to form a criminal organization. But this does not mean that the WWT-bamberg is the criminal association, prosecutor andre liebischer clarified.
According to the indictment, the WWT was only used by most members to attend right-wing events such as concerts. The accused, on the other hand, are alleged to have been members of the WWT's leadership circle, the hard core of this association, and to have at least used the structure to network with other right-wing radicals nationwide and to plan violent actions against foreigners and left-wing groups.
The court continues to try to determine whether the defendants formed such an organization.