German neonazi on trial for Lübcke murder

This 2019 video says about itself:

Germany: Two more suspects arrested linked to politician’s murder

Two more suspects were arrested in a case linked to the murder of German politician Walter Luebcke on Thursday.

Elmar J. and Markus, aged 64 and 43 respectively, were detained on suspicion of being accessories to murder. …

Luebcke was found dead on the terrace of his family home in Wolfhagen near Kassel on June 2.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

Murder of politician Lübcke shocked Germany, suspect in court today …

Today, the trial of prime suspect Stephan Ernst (46) begins among big interest in Frankfurt.

The main question is of course: did Ernst do it? At least there is a pile of evidence against him. His DNA was found at the crime scene and on the murder weapon, and he made an extensive confession shortly after he was arrested. Among other things, he said that he hated Lübcke for his commitment to refugees, thought about harming him day and night, and that he had already stood several times in front of Lübcke’s house.

Since childhood in neo-Nazi circles

Ernst has been in neo-Nazi circles since childhood. In 1993 he carried out a fire attack at an asylum seekers’ center and assaulted a German-Turkish imam. For that, he was sentenced to six years youth prison as a 19-year-old. Later he joined the neo-Nazi party NPD. He often attends demonstrations of the extreme right and keeps coming into contact with the police. He also has connections with members of the now-banned militant neo-Nazi group Combat 18. During this court case, Ernst is on trial apart from the murder of Lübcke, for attempting to murder an Iraqi asylum seeker more than four years ago. …

But his confession is not the only proof against him. In Ernst’s house, lists of ‘possible targets’ were found on a hidden USB stick. It was a synagogue, local politicians and anti-fascists. He kept entire files with addresses, number plates, behavioral patterns. Also found: manuals for building bombs and conducting underground operations. “Anything that aims to destroy the enemy is good,” Ernst himself wrote.

Many in Germany wonder how it is possible that a well-known neo-Nazi like Ernst was not on the radar with the intelligence service. …

He had a family, bought a house and was CEO of his own company. The secret service thought he had “cooled down” and was no longer watching him.

Incorrect estimate

An absolutely incorrect estimate, says Katharina König-Preuss. She sits for the Die Linke left party in the Thuringian parliament and is an expert in the field of the extreme right in Germany (and also receives repeated threats herself). “If the judiciary does not hear from a neo-Nazi for five years, so does not see him at demos or other meetings, his file will be closed, because they think that this person has turned his back on the scene. That is an absolute mistake. It happens more often that neo-Nazis withdraw when they have a family, but that does not mean that they say goodbye to the ideas.”

Investigation after the murder has shown that Ernst did still support the extreme right. He is said to have supported the banned ‘Identitarian Movement‘ with multiple donations and had contact with Combat 18 people.

The British Conservative Daily Telegraph reports:

The main suspect [Stephan Ernst] in the assassination of a German politician last year previously worked as a campaign volunteer for the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD), it has emerged.

The NOS article continues:

There are also photos of him at a demonstration in Chemnitz, where several right-wing extremist groups gathered …

König-Preuss: “Eg, no extensive research has been done on the members of Combat 18. They should also take a closer look at right-wing extremist elements in their own governmental organisations, with the army and the police.”

The fact that the violence of the extreme right is increasing also has to do with the fact that there is now a party called AfD in parliament. “The road from words to actions is not long. If people with racist beliefs find out that they are no longer alone with their ideas, that even a party with 25 percent of the vote [in Thuringia] thinks the same about refugees, this may be a reason for some to go from verbal abuse into reality.”

“In the case of Walter Lübcke, it was repeatedly claimed that he had betrayed the German people, that he was cooperating in the ‘replacement’ of the German people. On that hate speech, someone like Stephan Ernst also bases his conviction that he in fact, by killing, represents the will of the people.”