BERLIN, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- A joint plaintiff in the ongoing National Socialist Underground (NSU) has accused German authorities of hampering investigations into the right-wing extreme terrorist organization on Wednesday.
Investigators ignored information about accessories to the NSU's illegal activities in Dortmund, the attorney Carsten Ilius said before the Munich Higher Regional Court. The attorney attacked federal prosecutors for "successfully preventing" investigations into NSU supporters in Dortmund.
Ilius represents the family of the murder victim Memet Kubasik. According to charges filed by the prosecution, Kubasik was shot dead by Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt in April 2006 because of his Turkish roots.
During his plea, Ilius accused federal prosecutors of propagating a narrative centered on only three NSU terrorists despite having information to the contrary.
The attorney complained that judicial authorities were hereby attempting to preserve the "image of a post-national socialist, pretty and free Germany." As a consequence, they emphasized the outsized roles of three suspects on "the border of insanity" rather than highlighting a wider underlying "network."
The NSU is believed to have committed a total of ten murders, including the assassination of one police officer, as well as three bombings and 15 armed robberies between 1998 and 2011.
Until group leaders Boenhardt and Mundlos uncovered their own organization before committing suicide in 2011, elaborate investigations by authorities yielded no results. The failure of security forces to prevent the NSU's terrorist activities, despite their knowledge of the organization's radical views, prompted widespread outrage in Germany.
Beate Zschaepe, the last surviving member of the core cell around Boenhardt and Mundlos, is the primary suspect in the NSU trial. Federal prosecutors have demanded a life-long sentence without the possibility of premature release for Zschaepe due to her involvement in the series of murders and bombings.
