Five years after Zschäpe, 43, first entered the dock, her lawyer Hermann Borchert called the case against her "inadequate" and insisted she was not involved in a string of racist murders, bombings and bank robberies committed by the clandestine cell.

Prosecutors accused Zschäpe of complicity in the bloody crimes carried out by Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, the two gunmen of the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) who died in an apparent 2011 murder-suicide.

Borchert placed the sole blame on the two men, who had been in a love triangle with Zschäpe since their teenage years and who between 2000 and 2007 shot dead eight men with Turkish roots, a Greek migrant and a German policewoman.

Zschäpe, who faces a maximum term of life in jail, has claimed she was an unwilling and horrified bystander to the crimes, not a strong-willed and active participant as charged by prosecutors in the Munich trial.

Borchert told the court that the two men had been the NSU's dominant force and that the particularly volatile Boehnhardt had been described by his own father as "a ticking timebomb".

The lawyer said it was "absurd to believe that the two Uwes cowered before my client", given that they were cold-blooded enough "to simply shoot people in the face".

Macabre video

The NSU case deeply shocked Germany, where security services had previously only associated terrorism with far-left and Islamist militants and believed far-right thugs mainly committed random acts of street violence and arson.

It was only after the two men's deaths in 2011 that Germany awoke to the news that the killings, long blamed on migrant crime gangs and dubbed the "doner (kebab) murders" by police and media, were in fact committed by organised fascists.

Also in the dock are four men accused of having supported the NSU with weapons, identity papers, cash or other support during their string of 10 murders, two bombings and 15 bank robberies that helped finance their underground lives.

MUST READ: The German spy services' dubious ties to the neo-Nazi scene

Zschäpe, when she learnt of the two Uwes' deaths after a bungled bank heist, torched their common home, dropped her two cats with a neighbour and fled.

While on the run, she mailed to media and Muslim community groups DVDs in which the NSU bragged about the murders in a macabre confession video set to a Pink Panther cartoon theme.

The NSU's discovery embarrassed German security services, exposing institutional biases and mistakes and raising uncomfortable questions about how the cell went undetected for 13 years.

Federal and state-level parliamentary committees spent years trying to understand what went wrong, including the murky role of paid undercover informants inside the rightwing extremist subculture.

In the Munich trial, prosecutors have focused on Zschäpe, charging she was an active NSU member who aided the crimes by covering the men's tracks, handling finances and providing a safe retreat.

Zschäpe has insisted that she was involved "neither in the planning nor the execution" and had only stayed with the two men because was financially and emotionally dependent on them and feared going to jail.

Describing their shared teenage days in the neo-Nazi youth scene of their post-reunification east German home town of Jena, she told the court that "those two were my family".</s>Defense lawyers asked a court in Munich on Thursday to give Beate Zschäpe a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for her involvement in the National Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorist cell.

State attorneys had demanded a life sentence for Zschäpe, who they say helped mastermind and carry out a string of murders and bomb attacks between 2000 and 2007.

Read more: What is Germany's NSU terror trial?

The facts of the case:
• Zschäpe is the only surviving member of the NSU, which also included Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos. Both men committed suicide after authorities identified the group in 2011.
• The NSU allegedly murdered nine people with immigrant backgrounds and a police officer. They have also been accused of committing two bomb attacks and a series of bank robberies.
• Zschäpe has been charged with joint complicity in 10 counts of murder, arson, multiple robberies, extortion, the formation of a terrorist organization and membership in a terrorist organization.
• Federal prosecutors have said Zschäpe should serve a maximum life-in-prison sentence.
• But her lawyer, Mathias Grasel, said on Thursday that she was guilty of arson, extortion, aiding multiple robberies, and conspiracy to commit robberies, but that there was no evidence for her the other charges. Her sentence, they said, should not exceed 10 years in prison.

"These crimes [the murders] were committed solely by Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos," adding: "my client cannot be made responsible for the acts of the two men as the only survivor [of the group]."

"The legal system must be able to deal with crimes for which the actual perpetrators can no longer be held accountable."

Who is Beate Zschäpe? Zschäpe is a 43-year-old from Jena in eastern Germany, where she, Böhnhardt and Mundlos had been active in the right-wing extremist scene. She has been in pretrial detention since 2011.

Mammoth trial: The trial against Zschäpe started in 2013 in Munich's Higher Regional Court.

What happens next? The court is set in the next few weeks to hear pleas from Zschäpe's previous lawyers, who she had thrown out, and four people accused of helping the NSU. A final ruling is expected sometime after June.</s>BERLIN (AP) - Lawyers for the main defendant in a high-profile neo-Nazi murder trial in Germany have begun their closing arguments - five years after proceedings opened.

Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the far-right National Socialist Underground group, is accused of taking part in 10 killings, two bomb attacks and several bank robberies.

The 43-year-old's lawyers told the Munich regional court Tuesday that their client didn't have an equal role in the killings committed by two deceased members of the group.

In this Tuesday, March 13, 2018 photo terror suspect Beate Zschaepe, center, arrives in a court room between her lawyers Hermann Borchert, left, and Mathias Grasel, right, in Munich, Germany. The lawyers for the main defendant in a high-profile neo-Nazi murder trial have begun their closing arguments, five years after proceedings opened. Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the far-right National Socialist Underground group, is accused of taking part 10 killings, two bomb attacks and several bank robberies. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, Pool)

Prosecutors want life imprisonment for Zschaepe and lesser sentences for four defendants accused of helping the group. They, and lawyers representing some of the victims, finished their closing arguments in February.

The trial, which was drawn out by regular delaying motions by the defendants, is expected to conclude within weeks.

In this Tuesday, March 13, 2018 photo terror suspect Beate Zschaepe, center, sits in a court room between her lawyers Hermann Borchert, left, and Mathias Grasel, right, in Munich, Germany. The lawyers for the main defendant in a high-profile neo-Nazi murder trial have begun their closing arguments, five years after proceedings opened. Beate Zschaepe, the only known survivor of the far-right National Socialist Underground group, is accused of taking part 10 killings, two bomb attacks and several bank robberies. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, Pool)
The terror trial of Beate Zschäpe hears closing arguments in Germany. In addition to a series of murders, Zschäpe stands accused of bombings and bank robberies.