MUNICH, Germany
An under custody suspected member of a Neo Nazi terrorist group has hinted on breaking her prolonged silence about the murder of 10 people, mostly of Turkish origin, between 2000 and 2007.
Beate Zschaepe, the main suspect and the only surviving member of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), has so far refused to give evidence in a trial over the cases that has been running since 2013.
According to German media Monday, Zschaepe reportedly sent a letter to Germany's Supreme State Court, hinting that she wanted to break her silence.
In the letter, Zschaepe said: "Saying something [about the NSU] occupies her mind."
Her lawyers Anja Strum, Wolfgang Heer and Wolfgang Stahl, however, threatened Zschaepe that they would stop defending her if she spoke without their consent.
Zschaepe recently expressed discomfort about her lawyers, demanding to dismiss Strum; but, the court rejected her request.
At least eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek worker and a German policewoman were killed between 2000 and 2007, all apparently without arousing the suspicions of the German police or the domestic intelligence services.
For years, Germany’s police and intelligence service excluded any racial motive for the murders and instead treated immigrant families with alleged connections to mafia groups and drug traffickers as suspects in the case.
The German public first learned about the NSU and its role in the murders in November 2011, when two members of the group reportedly died in a murder-suicide following an unsuccessful bank robbery.
Some recent revelations in the media said that the case involved alleged ties between far-right extremists and informants of Germany's domestic intelligence agency.
German authorities deny there had been any such relationship between its agents and the NSU.
