‘NSU trial postponed, court making a mockery of itself’

The high court in Munich has postponed the trial of five members of the far right terrorist group Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, originally planned for April 17, until May 6.
The defendents 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.
The judges argued that the decision was prompted by a lack of space to accomodate foreign journalists, and in particular correspondents from Greece and Turkey, like most of the 10 victims of the NSU. On April 12, the German Constitutional Court had ruled that more courtroom seats should be reserved for the foreign press.
The government mediator dealing with NSU-related cases has requested that the court reimburse the relatives of victims who had already booked train tickets and hotel accommodation.
Die Welt reports that representatives of victims’ families have already expressed indignation at the poor organisation of the trial which will turn a spotlight on the worst neo-Nazi crimes “in the history of federal Germany”.