‘MPs put court under pressure’

On the initiative of three MPs of Turkish origin, 55 members of the German federal parliament have demanded that the trial of five members of the far right terrorist group Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, which will begin in Munich on April 17, be fully open to journalists who wish to attend.
Five people are to go on trial for race crimes including the murders of Greek and Turkish immigrants between 2000 and 2011 and a bomb attack which took place in Cologne in 2004. Large numbers of journalists, and in particular Turkish journalists, asked to attend the hearings, however, the Munich appeal court turned down their request arguing that there was insufficient room to accommodate them.
“It would be fatal to give the public and the international press, and especially the Turkish press, the impression that they are being excluded at a time [...] light is to shed on racist crimes,” point out the MPs who signed the request.