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In the trial of the murder of Walter Lübcke, the family of the victim sees a remarkably friendly treatment of the possible accomplice Markus H. This angered the presiding judge Thomas Sagebiel.
In the trial of the murder of the Kassel District President Walter Lübcke, the 5th Senate at the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court rejected allegations of the victim’s relatives in unusually sharp words. The Senate considers it an “outrageous process” that the Lübcke family publicly give the impression that the judges: inside treated Markus H., who was accused of complicity in murder, in a particularly friendly manner, said presiding judge Thomas Sagebiel in the courtroom on Tuesday.
“We can not see that we should have treated Mr. H. differently than other parties to the proceedings,” said Judge Sagebiel. Rather, it is said that Markus H. was released from pre-trial detention at the beginning of October because, like every other accused, he was presumed to be innocent. Nobody will be able to put pressure on the 5th Senate through “unqualified attacks”.
Sagebiel referred to a report by “Spiegel Online”, in which the lawyer for the Lübcke family, Holger Matt, and their spokesman Dirk Metz had been quoted. The two had told the news portal that the Lübcke family had the impression that the Senate was showing “remarkable friendliness and patience” towards H. The relatives were even worried “that further clarification about H.’s involvement is not wanted” because the Senate would otherwise have to revise his release, according to Matt and Metz.
The background to the dispute is that the Senate had rejected several requests for evidence from the Lübcke family, who appear as joint plaintiffs in the proceedings. Lawyer Matt had applied for the files and cellphone of Frank Hannig, the former defense attorney for the main defendant Stephan Ernst, to be confiscated. Hannig had written an email to family spokesman Metz in which he had described Markus H.’s release from prison as a wrong decision. The Lübcke family therefore assumes that Hannig’s documents could contain indications or even evidence that Markus H. was directly involved in the crime. The family has already emphasized several times that they are convinced that H. was together with Stephan Ernst at the family house in Wolfhagen-Istha when Walter Lübcke was shot. This was also testified by Ernst, who initially claimed to have acted alone.
The Senate justified the rejection of the sub-prosecution’s motions for evidence by stating that the email from lawyer Hannig only revealed his personal assessment. In addition, it is not certain that Hannig’s documents would contain any information about what Ernst had reported to his lawyer at the time. Seriously seizing Hannig’s files from his mandate is also inadmissible because the lawyer is still partly bound by his duty of confidentiality.
Lawyer Matt presented a counter-presentation on Thursday in which he justified why the Senate’s decision was “legally flawed” and why the confiscation of Hannig’s files was legally possible and also necessary. The goal of the family is “as comprehensive and complete as possible,” said Matt.
The Federal Prosecutor made it clear that they see the case in a similar way to the joint plaintiffs. Markus H.’s defense complained about a “campaign” by the Lübcke family against the 44-year-old. Judge Sagebiel then announced that the arguments of the secondary prosecution would be dealt with again. As a precaution, Sagebiel pointed out that if the Senate rethought, the process could drag on into January next year.
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