Beate Zschäpe, member of the neo-Nazi terrorist group the National Socialist Underground (NSU), was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for the murder of ten people between 2000 and 2007, as well as her part in two bombings, and several robberies and attempted murders. She was also found guilty of membership in and the foundation of a terrorist organization.

The judge Manfred Götzl also attributed Zschäpe with serious culpability, which means the 43-year-old is likely to serve more than the minimum of 15 years.

Ralf Wohlleben, who was found to have provided the gun with which nine of the murders were carried out, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Two other accomplices, Holger G. and Carsten S., were sentenced to three years in prison each for helping a terrorist organization and nine counts of accessory to murder, while a third man, Andre E., was sentenced to two years and six months for helping the group. Andre E. was released, having already served his prison time during the trial.

Reporting from inside the packed court in Munich, where some people had queued overnight to get in, DW correspondent Hans Pfeifer said many neo-Nazis had made it into the courtroom and cheered loudly when Andre E. was released. Outside, DW correspondent Isil Nergiz said many people observed a minute's silence for the NSU's victims before the verdict was read.

Zschäpe was smiling as she entered the courtroom just after 9:40 a.m., and "tried to look unmoved" as she faced the cameras. He added that the defendant sat "almost motionless" as the judge read the reasoning behind the court's verdict.

The judge said the three members of the NSU had resolved to carry out "ideologically-motivated attacks" and kill foreign citizens, and had planned the murders together. He added that Zschäpe had played a "special role" in creating a "harmless legend" for the outside world, while the two male members of the group, Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, now dead, had carried out the attacks.

The judge emphasized that the NSU's attacks could only have succeeded if all three members had planned them together, rejecting Zschäpe's defense that she had not committed any of the killings herself and had only found out about them afterwards.

Zschäpe's attorney Wolfgang Heer said afterwards that his client would lodge an appeal, calling the conviction "legally flawed." "The court reasoning is extremely thin," he said. "The court is very clearly flouting the unambiguous rulings of the Federal Court of Justice on complicity."

Read more: Opinion: NSU trial underlines German state failures

Questions unanswered

The Munich state court ruling marks the end of one of the most important trials in Germany's postwar history. It was also one of the most complex, covering five years — more than 430 trial days — and featuring the testimonies of around 600 witnesses. Nine of the NSU's victims were of immigrant background; the tenth was a police officer.

Almost as soon as the verdict was released, a number of community organizations, political parties and lawyers released statements saying the verdict should not be the conclusion of the NSU case and calling for more investigations into Germany's neo-Nazi terrorist network.

Watch video 04:54 German court hands down life sentence in neo-Nazi murder trial

Chancellor Angela Merkel promised in 2012 that there would be a "gapless" investigation into what has since become known as the "NSU complex," and there have been 13 separate parliamentary inquiries at both federal and state levels, but they have been hampered by official obstacles, as domestic intelligence agencies destroyed files and protected paid informants in the neo-Nazi scene.

"Angela Merkel and many others promised the victims a complete investigation. That promise was broken," said Gökay Sofuoglu, chairman of the Turkish community organization TGD, in a statement.

"The people who are dead are dead because of the neo-Nazis' hate and racism," Mehmet Daimagüler, an attorney who represented two of the victims' relatives in the trial, told DW last week. "But they're also dead because of a racist investigation. They're dead because the state, in the form of the intelligence agencies, helped to develop this movement, supported it financially, gave it legal protection. Without thinking of the consequences."

The socialist Left party said the verdict had failed to shed light on the NSU network. Left party MP Petra Pau blamed Merkel for allowing herself to be "driven into lying" after her 2012 promises "by interior ministers, federal and state authorities, and especially the domestic intelligence agencies." "And I have to say she let it happen," said Pau. "I have not heard anything else from her since then and not seen any efforts at all at breaking through the investigation blockade set up by the authorities."

But Merkel's own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) praised the efforts of both the judge and state prosecutors and defended the government's investigations into the case.

"The trial was only part of the efforts towards a thorough investigation that Angela Merkel announced in 2012," said Armin Schuster, CDU representative in the Bundestag's domestic policy committee. "Questions remain open after the verdict that are especially important for the victims and their relatives: Why were these specific people killed or injured by explosives? Who chose them to be victims of murder and bombings? Who may have helped Böhnhardt and Mundlos at the crime scenes?"

Barbara John, government ombudswoman for the relatives of the NSU victims, also defended Merkel. "Even the chancellor is not powerful enough to look into what the public servants are doing all day long," she told DW. "And when we look at what was happening there, you will see that change has to come out of these groups themselves. It is their obligation now to see why this could happen and why they could not prevent it."

Read more:The NSU crime scenes

Trusting the authorities

The trial took place amid persistent suspicion about the failures of German security forces to capture the NSU while it was active, despite evidence that its existence was well-known in neo-Nazi circles. Observers have also accused the police who originally investigated the murders of institutional racism for ruling out neo-Nazi motives at an early stage.

For several years, detectives went down blind alleys as they worked on the assumption that the killings were related to Turkish organized crime. Police were also criticized for labeling the killings as "kebab murders" at the time.

Abdulkerim Simsek, whose father Enver was shot dead by the NSU in 2000, told DW on Tuesday: "First my mother was accused, then my uncle, then everyone around us was constantly under investigation. That went on for eleven years. My father wasn't treated like he was the victim; instead he got the blame. It was the whole of the media. Whether it was the so-called 'kebab murders' of Turkish people or drug offenses. The press always said my father was to blame. And that's how we felt."

Ahead of the verdict, Sofuoglu said that the Turkish community's trust in the security forces was "deeply shaken." He accused state prosecutors of sticking rigidly to the theory that the three members of the NSU had worked in isolation.

The NSU was only discovered on November 4, 2011, after the bodies of Böhnhardt and Mundlos were found in a burned-out motorhome following a failed bank robbery in Eisenach, in an apparent murder-suicide pact. Zschäpe turned herself in to police four days later, but not before setting fire to the trio's shared apartment in Zwickau, destroying evidence. She was also found guilty on Wednesday of arson.

Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence for Zschäpe and prison terms of three to 12 years for the four people accused of helping the group. Her own attorneys had called for her release, arguing that she had not been an accessory to the crimes and pointing out that there was no evidence she was present at any of the murders.</s>A German court has found a member of a neo-Nazi group guilty of 10 murders after a five-year trial and has sentenced her to life in prison. Nine of the victims were immigrants, and the prosecution said the killings were racially motivated.

Beate Zschaepe, 43, was the main defendant on trial for the murders and the last surviving member of a terrorist cell called the National Socialist Underground. Zschaepe had shared a flat with the two other members of the cell, who died in 2011 in an apparent suicide pact.

Police found the bodies of Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt in a burned-out van after an attempted bank robbery. The BBC reported that a fire at their home was "apparently an attempt to destroy evidence" and led to Zschaepe turning herself in.

The three, over several years, waged a neo-Nazi campaign, which included two bombings in Cologne, bank robberies and the murders of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek citizen and a German police officer. Most of the victims were fatally shot with a handgun while they were at work. Zschaepe denied taking part in the murders, which occurred between 2000 and 2007, but said she should have done more to stop them from happening.

Zschaepe's defense lawyer, Mathias Grasel, told The Guardian he would appeal her conviction. "Instead of punishing Zschaepe as a representative, a constitutional democracy has to be able to bear it when the true culprits can no longer be prosecuted for their cruel crimes," Grasel said.

The Guardian reported, "The sentence was largely as a result of the state prosecutor's opinion that even though the court could not prove Zschaepe had been present at any of the crime scenes, she 'had been aware of, contributed to, and in her own way co-piloted' the neo-Nazi cell's killings." The judge found the killings had racist motives and were designed to spread fear and insecurity among immigrant communities.

Four other men were convicted on Tuesday for helping the NSU cell and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 2 1/2 to 10 years.

Dirk Laabs, co-author of a book about the NSU, told The Guardian, "If you look at the sentences for Zschaepe's co-conspirators, this is an unbelievably soft verdict. It's hard to imagine people accused of supplying weapons and logistics for terrorist activity would have got off so lightly if this had been a trial about an Islamist cell."

Critics said a central question was unanswered: How did the NSU terrorist cell evade detection from German authorities for so many years? At the time of the killings, police blamed German-Turkish gang violence. According to the BBC, German media referred to them as the "Bosphorus murders," or the more derogatory "doner murders." Doner is a name for a Turkish kebab.

In 2013, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reported that many "among the 3 million people of Turkish descent who live in Germany are angry, saying the murders and aftermath highlight prevalent racism not just in society but in the government. They want to know why German authorities failed to uncover — let alone stop — the terror campaign against them."

The Telegraph reported that evidence emerged during the trials "that several intelligence informants were in contact with the group, and an intelligence officer was close to the scene of one of the killings." According to The Guardian, "Many experts question how the trio could have gone undetected for so long without a sizable support network across Germany."</s>Beate Zschäpe, member of the neo-Nazi terrorist group the National Socialist Underground (NSU), was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for the murder of ten people between 2000 and 2007, two bombings, and several counts of attempted murder and robbery. She was also found guilty of the membership and foundation of a terrorist organization.

The judge Manfred Götzl also attributed Zschäpe with serious culpability, which means the 43-year-old is likely to serve more than the minimum of 15 years.

Her accomplice Ralf Wohlleben, who was found to have supplied the group the gun with which all the murders were carried out, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Two other accomplices, Holger G. and Carsten S., were sentenced to three years in prison each for supporting a terrorist organization and accessory to nine murders, while a third man, Andre E., was sentenced to two years and six months for supporting the group.

The Munich state court ruling marks the end of one of the most important trials in Germany's post-war history. It was also one of the most complex, covering five years — more than 430 trial days — and featuring the testimonies of several hundred witnesses. Nine of the NSU's victims were of immigrant background, while the tenth was a police officer.

Almost as soon as the verdict was released, a number of community organizations, opposition political parties, and lawyers released statements saying the verdict should not be seen as a conclusion of the NSU case and calling for more investigations into Germany's neo-Nazi terrorist network.

"Angela Merkel and many others promised the victims a complete investigation. That promise was broken," said Gökay Sofuoglu, chairman of the Turkish community organization TGD, in a statement.

The socialist Left party said that the verdict had failed to shed light on the NSU network. "There is a lot of evidence that the NSU consisted of more than three neo-Nazis," the party tweeted.

Heiko Maas, Germany's former justice minister and now foreign minister, tweeted, "We will not only confront racist violence with the power of the law. We need the diversity of our open societies against intolerance. What the perpetrators did cannot be atoned for. The victims will not be forgotten." He added a hashtag meaning "no conclusion."

The proceedings took place amid suspicion about the failures of German security forces to capture the NSU while it was active. Several lawyers representing the families' victims have accused Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesverfassungsschutz (BfV), of destroying files and protecting informants in the neo-Nazi scene. These failings sparked several parliamentary inquiries at both federal and state level.

Many observers have also accused the police who originally investigated the murders of institutional racism for ruling out neo-Nazi motives. For several years, detectives worked on the assumption that the killings were related to Turkish organized crime.

Ahead of the verdict, Sofuoglu said that the Turkish community's trust in the security forces was "deeply shaken." He accused state prosecutors of sticking rigidly to the theory that the three members of the NSU had worked in isolation.

The NSU was only discovered on November 4, 2011, after the bodies of its two other members, Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, were found in a burned-out motorhome following a failed bank robbery in Eisenach, having committed suicide. Zschäpe turned herself in to police four days later, but not before setting fire to the trio's shared apartment in Zwickau, destroying evidence. She was also found guilty of arson on Wednesday.

Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence for Zschäpe and prison terms of three to 12 years for the four people accused of helping the group. Her own attorneys had called for her release, arguing that she had not been an accessory to the crimes, had not committed any of the killings herself, and had only found out about them afterwards.</s>A German court has found the main defendant in a high-profile neo-Nazi trial guilty of killing 10 people – most of them migrants – who were gunned down between 2000 and 2007 in a case that has shocked Germany and prompted accusations of institutional racism in the country’s security agencies.

The judges sentenced Beate Zschäpe to life in prison for murder, membership of a terrorist organisation, bomb attacks that injured dozens, and several lesser crimes including a string of robberies. Four men were found guilty of supporting the group in various ways and sentenced to prison terms of between two and a half to 10 years.

The presiding judge, Manfred Götzl, told a packed Munich courtroom that Zschäpe’s guilt weighed particularly heavily, meaning she is likely to serve at least a 15-year sentence.

The 43-year-old showed no emotion as Götzl read out her sentence. A number of far-right activists attending the trial clapped when one of the co-accused, André Eminger, received a lower sentence than expected.

Zschäpe was arrested in 2011, shortly after her two accomplices, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Together with the two men she had formed the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a group that pursued an ideology of white racial supremacy by targeting migrants, mostly of Turkish origin.

The NSU evaded arrest for almost 14 years, thanks to a network of supporters and repeated mistakes by German security agencies.

Anti-migrant sentiment that underpinned the group’s ideology was particularly strong in eastern Germany during the early 1990s, when Mundlos, Böhnhardt and Zschäpe were in their late teens and early 20s. The period saw a string of attacks against migrants and the rise of far-right parties.

Anti-racism campaigners have drawn parallels between that period and the violence directed toward asylum-seekers in Germany in recent years, which has seen the emergence of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

The case against Zschäpe hinged heavily on the question of whether judges would hold her equally culpable for the killings as her two dead accomplices, even though there was no evidence she had been physically present during the attacks.

Her lawyers sought to portray Zschäpe as a naive woman who played no active role in the killings, bomb attacks and bank robberies committed by Mundlos and Böhnhardt. Zschäpe rarely spoke during the five-year trial, refusing to answer questions from lawyers representing the victims’ families. Toward the end, she expressed regret for the families’ loss and described herself as “morally guilty” but urged the court not to convict her “for something that I neither wanted nor did”.

The NSU case has already become a firm part of German popular culture, serving as the basis for books, a Golden Globe-winning film, and a Netflix series NSU German History X.

Still, Barbara John, the government’s ombudswoman for the victims’ families, said many in Germany don’t want to know the details of the case. “That’s true, too, for immigrants who want to protect themselves psychologically from the knowledge that they live in a country which couldn’t protect them,” she told the Associated Press.

Speaking ahead of the verdict, John said the trial could help send a signal not just to far-right extremists but also to the country’s security agencies, which for years failed to consider a possible far-right motive in the 10 killings and two bomb attacks that took place across the country. Instead, police focused on whether the victims had ties to organised crime a line of investigation for which there was never any evidence.

Families of the victims said on Tuesday that the suspicion directed toward their loved-ones shook their faith in the German justice system. “The investigation went in the wrong direction, not due to the failure of individuals but due to institutional racism,” said Alexander Hoffmann, a lawyer representing victims of a 2004 bomb attack in Cologne.

He urged federal prosecutors to continue investigating the NSU’s wider network of supporters, believed to be much broader than the four men on trial with Zschäpe.

John said there are encouraging signs that police and intelligence agencies are beginning to listen to minorities and make an effort to recruit them, ending the long-maintained illusion that Germany isn’t a country of immigrants.

“One big question remains: do we in Germany really want to know why and how the NSU murders occurred?” John said. “If that were the case, the work of politicians and civil society needs to continue.”</s>A member of a German neo-Nazi gang was jailed for life yesterday for her part in the murders of 10 people during a seven-year campaign of racially motivated violence.

A member of a German neo-Nazi gang was jailed for life yesterday for her part in the murders of 10 people during a seven-year campaign of racially motivated violence.

Beate Zschaepe (43) showed no reaction as the judge read out her sentence at the end of one of the most closely watched court cases in Germany's post-war history.

She was part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), whose members killed eight Turks, a Greek man and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, the Higher Regional Court in Munich ruled.

A report later said police had "massively underestimated" the risk of far-right violence and that missteps had allowed the cell to go undetected.

The judges said Zschaepe bore "particularly heavy guilt" .

She had denied any knowledge of the murders during the five-year trial. But she said later she regretted not stopping two male members of the gang, Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, from carrying out the killings.

Those men killed themselves in 2011 when police discovered the gang by chance.

Prosecutors said she had played a key role behind the scenes, planning the crimes and arranging money and alibis.

"This is a just punishment for the NSU's cold-blooded and unprecedented series of crimes," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.

Five of the 10 murders took place in Bavaria, the most violent attacks of their kind in Germany since the far-left Red Army Faction's two-decade killing spree that ended in 1991 and left at least 34 dead.

Zschaepe was also found guilty of membership of a terrorist organisation, of being co-perpetrator in two bombings, and of arson.

Four men were also found guilty of supporting the NSU in various ways, including procuring weapons, and handed sentences from two and a half to 10 years.

Zschaepe's lawyer, Mathias Grasel, said he would appeal.</s>A German woman has been sentenced to life in jail after being found guilty of murdering 10 people in a series of neo-Nazi attacks.

Beate Zschaepe, 43, the only surviving member of far-right group the National Socialist Underground (NSU), was convicted after a six-year trial over the deaths of 10 people, mostly migrants, between 2000 and 2007.

Eight of the victims were men of Turkish origin, one man was Greek and the other was a German policewoman.

Zschaepe was arrested in 2011, shortly after the deaths of her accomplices and former lovers, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, in an apparent murder-suicide.

The trio had formed white supremacist group, the NSU, which carried out 10 shootings and two bomb attacks, targeting migrants, mostly of Turkish origin.

Police and prosecutors failed to spot an anti-migrant link to the group's crimes, instead concentrating on victims' non-existent gangland connections.

Campaigners and lawyers for the victims' relatives have accused German authorities of covering up the size and influence of the NSU, which operated in secret for almost 14 years.

They have claimed the group even had informants in the German security services.

In Germany, those handed a life sentence typically serve 15 years behind bars as prisoners are often released for good conduct.

However, Zschaepe will not be eligible for parole as Judge Manfred Goetzl imposed the maximum sentence due to the "exceptional severity of the crime".

Ralf Wohlleben, a former member of the far-right NPD party accused of helping the NSU, was found guilty of complicity in nine counts of murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Andre Eminger, an unrepentent neo-Nazi, was acquitted of complicity but sentenced to two and a half years for backing a terrorist organisation, a verdict that was greeted with applause by supporters in the courtroom in Munich.</s>A German court on Wednesday sentenced neo-Nazi gang member Beate Zschäpe to life in prison for the murder of 10 people, mostly with an immigrant background.

Zschäpe is the sole surviving member of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a small far-right terror cell found responsible for the murder of nine immigrant men (eight Turkish and one Greek) and a German policewoman, in a killing spree carried out over seven years from 2000.

The group also set off two bombs in Cologne in 2000 and in 2004, with the second bombing injuring more than 20 people.

German police discovered the NSU almost by chance in 2011, after they had operated undetected for more than a decade, financing themselves with bank robberies. While some German law enforcement agencies had been on their trail, none had joined the dots and the cell was only discovered after Zschäpe’s two partners killed themselves following a failed robbery.

The events led to harsh criticism of Germany’s decentralized security structure, blamed for failing to detect the gang’s activities sooner.

Zschäpe, who is now 43, was put on trial in 2013 for complicity in all 10 murders, the Cologne bombings, 15 bank raids, arson and attempted murder, as well as for being part of a terrorist organization. In an apology issued in 2015, she assumed responsbility for the arson attacks but denied involvement in the murders. However, in her apology she said that she felt “morally responsible” for her actions, as well as for failing to stop her partners’ suicides.

“What the perpetrators have done is irreparable. The victims will never be forgotten,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter, adding that the fight against racist violence and intolerance requires not only the rule of law but also the “diversity of our open societies.”

Zschäpe’s lawyer Mathias Grasel said he would seek to appeal the verdict, arguing that Zschäpe could not be condemned for the complicity in the killings committed by her two partners, and calling the ruling “legally untenable.” The verdict, delivered by Munich’s Higher Regional Court, must now be reviewed by a federal court.

Read this next: Will Trump make NATO obsolete?</s>A Munich court has found the main defendant in a high-profile neo-Nazi trial guilty of murder over the killing of 10 people — most of them migrants.

The victims were gunned down between 2000 and 2007 in a case that shocked Germany.

Judges have sentenced Beate Zschaepe to life in prison.

The 43-year-old was arrested in 2011, shortly after her two accomplices were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

Together with the men, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, she had formed the National Socialist Underground, which pursued an ideology of white racial supremacy by targeting migrants, mostly of Turkish origin.

Authorities for years failed to attribute the killings and two bomb attacks to a far-right group, instead investigating non-existent gangland links.</s>One of Germany's most high-profile neo-Nazi trials came to an end Wednesday when so-called "Nazi bride" Beate Zschaepe was found guilty of 10 counts of murder, NBC News reported.

She is the last surviving member of a neo-Nazi gang, the National Socialist Underground, that carried out a series of killings and bombings between 2000 and 2007.

The gang killed eight men of Turkish origin, a Greek migrant and a female German police officer.

Zschaepe spoke only twice during the five-year case, but did deny taking part in killings while also apologizing to the victims' families.</s>MUNICH: The only surviving member of a German neo-Nazi cell behind a string of racist murders was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison, capping a mammoth trial that began in May 2013.

Beate Zschaepe, 43, was found guilty of 10 counts of murder in deadly shootings of nine Turkish and Greek-born immigrants as well as a German policewoman carried out by a trio known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU).

Although life imprisonment in Germany typically means 15 years behind bars as prisoners are often released for good conduct, Zschaepe would not be eligible for parole as judge Manfred Goetzl imposed the maximum sentence due to the "exceptional severity of the crime".

Police say the NSU's two male members - Zschaepe's former lovers Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt - carried out their killing spree from 2000 to 2007, before they died in an apparent suicide pact following a bungled bank heist in 2011.

Meanwhile Ralf Wohlleben, a former member of the far-right NPD party and accused of having provided help to the NSU, was found guilty of complicity in nine counts of murder. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Unrepentant neo-Nazi Andre Eminger was however found not guilty of complicity but sentenced to two and a half years for backing a terrorist organisation, a verdict that was greeted with applause by supporters in the courtroom.
In Germany, the accused members and supporters of the Neo-Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground are found guilty of the murders of nine immigrants and one policewoman, assistance in said murders, bomb attacks, attempted murders, and robbery. The main defendant and last surviving member of the terrorist group, Beate Zschäpe, is sentenced to life imprisonment.