Munich court sets 2035 as earliest review of Zschäpe’s release

Beate Zschäpe, convicted of multiple murders in the National Socialist Underground case, will remain in prison until at least 2035, BR reported. The Munich Higher Regional Court set a minimum term of 24 years and confirmed that it will first consider whether and when she could be released in 2035.

The decision followed months of closed deliberations by the court’s criminal division. Relatives of the victims said they had not been informed about the proceedings and called on the justice system to handle any release review with the utmost care.

Zschäpe was part of the core of the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi terrorist group that carried out bomb attacks and robberies and murdered a police officer and nine people with migrant backgrounds. The group went undetected for almost 14 years. It came to light on Nov. 4, 2011, after Zschäpe’s accomplices Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos died by suicide following a failed bank robbery in Eisenach, and Zschäpe set fire to their shared apartment in Zwickau. She turned herself in to police four days later.

Zschäpe, now 51, has been in custody since 2011. In July 2018, the court sentenced her to life in prison for, among other offences, 10 murders. It found her guilt to be especially severe, ruling out release after the usual 15 years.

She and her lawyer, Mathias Grasel, have sought an earlier release. During the five-year NSU trial, Zschäpe largely remained silent, but later made statements to a Bavarian state parliamentary inquiry, the federal prosecutor and in the Dresden trial of a woman accused of supporting the NSU.

Zschäpe is serving her sentence at Chemnitz Prison and has joined a non-governmental programme for people leaving neo-Nazi groups. Relatives of victims have criticised her participation. Michalina Boulgarides, whose father Theodoros was murdered in Munich, told BR that while victims’ families were seeking answers and recognition, a convicted killer was being offered “resocialisation.” Her sister Mandy said Zschäpe had not provided substantial help in clarifying the NSU case.

Mandy Boulgarides said any review should focus on credible efforts to address the crimes and on public safety. She also called for transparency and respectful treatment of victims’ relatives, saying the family had not been told when Zschäpe was brought from Chemnitz Prison to Munich for a closed hearing in late August.