Wednesday January 27, 2021
Lübcke process comes to an end
After three confessions, the verdict is reached
From Michael Ortmann
In the summer of 2019, the Kassel District President Walter Lübcke was murdered. It is the first right-wing extremist murder of a politician in Germany since the Second World War. Now the judgment will be given.
Twenty months after the murder of the Kassel District President Walter Lübcke, the sentence will be announced this Thursday before the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt. The verdict is eagerly awaited not only in Germany.
The question is: will Stephan Ernst, the main suspect, be convicted of murder? And is the particular gravity of the guilt determined, maybe even preventive detention ordered? What punishment does Marcus H. get? Is he condemned as an accomplice or as an accomplice? One thing is certain: when the verdict is announced, the files of one of the most spectacular state security proceedings will be closed after 45 days of negotiations. So it's time to look back at the process and the outstanding actors.
The judge: Let's start with the one who directed and choreographed the process, presiding judge Thomas Sagebiehl. A man trained to deal with weighty proceedings. He has condemned genocides, terrorists and all kinds of violent criminals, so he's a professional. Long-term process observers and those involved attest to the 64-year-old's sovereign skill. "Even if we didn't always agree, he is undoubtedly a good chairman," said Stephan Ernst's defender Mustafa Kaplan in an exclusive interview with ntv and RTL. Sagebiehl also proved this in this procedure. The indictment comprised 90,000 pages, three different and sometimes contradicting confessions of the accused had to be analyzed and evaluated. Defenders had to admonish Sagebiehl or they were exchanged. In between, the procedure was suspended due to the corona. But Sagebiehl remained undeterred. He rarely missed the mark, for example when he called the defendant's conscience: "Believe me. Do not believe your lawyers." A saying that can put a strain on the client-lawyer relationship of trust. Whatever his verdict, it should be his last. After that, the 64-year-old will probably devote himself to another passion: cooking.
The defenders: It was a remarkable mixture that marched there at the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court. The spectrum ranged from right-wing scene lawyers to defense attorneys close to Pegida to experienced lawyers and procedural high-profile. As expected, they started with a flood of applications. With a view to the pandemic, some called for the trial to be suspended. Then someone thought the judge was biased, a lawyer asked for more time to study the files and of course there was also the demand that the proceedings should actually be closed. Process-related everyday life. But it was to be even more astonishing. The main defendant, Ernst, had already confessed to the crime and revealed a great deal of perpetrator knowledge, for example where the murder weapon was buried. But to the astonishment of everyone involved, his lawyer Frank Hannig from Dresden suddenly presented a completely new sequence of events and dragged co-defendant Marcus H. into the spotlight as the shooter. Incredible, absurd and fictitious, so the unanimous opinion. A maneuver that probably "could have legal consequences," said defense lawyer Mustafa Kaplan.
In the course of the proceedings, the so-called Pegida lawyer Hannig – he had appeared as a speaker at a Pegida event – more and more often put forward questionable motions, so that at some point the presiding judge broke the collar and he attested Hannig that it was all "technical nonsense" . In the end there was no longer a relationship of trust and Ernst no longer wanted to be represented by Hannig either. Hannig left, Kaplan came. Since the native Turk himself was threatened by right-wing extremists and now represented one of them, the process aroused quite astonishment. But the hobby boxer is someone who has a lot of experience in large-scale processes and who is able to hand out and pocket. He has already represented the Turkish President Erdogan in the proceedings against Jan Böhmermann or was victim lawyer in the NSU proceedings against Beate Zschäpe.
Stephan Ernst and Markus H .: The main defendant Stephan Ernst is on trial for murder, he is a right-wing extremist through and through. Born in Wiesbaden in 1973, he describes his childhood as "a hell of violence, anger and loneliness". Above all, he outlined the relationship with his often drunk and allegedly xenophobic father as extremely difficult. His defense attorney Kaplan believes him. "It must have been an extremely difficult time for him," said the Cologne native. In the interrogation video, which was recorded just a few days after the crime, a man can be seen with his head bowed, looking insecure, sometimes seeming to be close to tears, then again looking objective. His expert Norbert Leygraf came to the conclusion that all in all, Ernst was "not very emotional, outwardly uninvolved, but inwardly easily offended". He is also prone to spontaneous outbursts of violence. According to Leygraf, however, the special thing is that Ernst himself has friends, acquaintances and work colleagues who have foreign roots. That doesn't fit in with his right-wing extremist ideology. Even Ernst cannot explain it. "But he deeply regrets the act and I believe him," said his defense lawyer.
With him in the dock sits Markus H., one of his early friends. He is charged with aiding and abetting murder. His extreme right-wing disposition is certain. For 25 years he has been part of the right-wing extremist Kassel scene. His former girlfriend, mother of a three-year-old daughter, describes him as a "loner and narcissist". He is a right-wing extremist with an affinity for weapons and tries to manipulate everyone around him. Your statement is consistent with the findings of the Federal Prosecutor's Office. H. probably incited Ernst to act, he planned the act together with him and H. knew exactly what Ernst was up to. But no evidence was found that he was also at the house of the Lübcke family on the night of the crime. Only Stephan Ernst's DNA was found. But that doesn't mean that Markus H. wasn't at the crime scene anyway. It just can't be proven. His defense attorney demanded an acquittal in his closing lecture on Tuesday.
In its plea, the federal prosecutor's office had demanded life imprisonment for Ernst, it also wants to have the particular severity of the guilt determined and pleads for subsequent preventive detention. The prosecution demanded nine years and eight months imprisonment for H.
The Lübcke family: It was without a doubt the hardest months for them. First of all, the painful loss of her husband and father. But then also to sit for days facing the men who murdered him. It was undoubtedly driven by the desire to finally find out "what happened on the night of June 1st to 2nd, 2019 and how it came about," as the family spokesman, Holger Matt, said. The fact that, in her opinion, the defendant tried to sketch his difficult childhood as a co-reason for the crime annoyed her. According to Matt, "the family can hardly cope with the fact that the main defendant with overflowing explanations about his difficult childhood" creates the impression that he is the victim. The Lübcke family is generally convinced that the defendants Stephan Ernst and Markus H. committed the murder jointly, insidiously and for low motives.
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