German Lübcke trial: Far-right defendant faces killing verdict

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55824282

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Stephan Ernst admitted in court to firing the shot that killed Walter Lübcke

A Frankfurt court is set to deliver a verdict in the trial of a far-right sympathiser accused of murdering prominent pro-migrant politician in his garden in 2019.

Walter Lübcke, a regional Christian Democrat governor, was shot in the head at close range.

Stephan Ernst, 47, has already admitted firing the shot.

A second man identified only as Markus H is accused of helping the gunman.

Both defendants have a far-right background and prosecutors maintain the motive for the murder was their political extremism.

Walter Lübcke was the first elected politician to be murdered in Germany for decades. If the court finds the motive was political, it would be the most prominent far-right political assassination in a democratic Germany since the 1920s.

Stephan Ernst's lawyer has argued that it was a political attack and should therefore be treated as manslaughter.

Prosecutors say he should be given life in jail. He is also accused of the attempted murder of an Iraqi refugee in a knife attack in January 2016. The victim was badly wounded.

Markus H has denied involvement and his lawyers say he should be acquitted of aiding and abetting the killer.

What happened to Walter Lübcke?

Lübcke, 65, was the head of the regional council in Kassel in the central state of Hesse. He was a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party and became known nationally when he openly backed her call to take in refugees in 2015.

At a rowdy town hall meeting in October that year, he told audience members they had to stand up for Christian values.

Walter Lübcke was shot in the head with a short-range weapon in June 2019

He received death threats and was given personal protection soon after.

Stephan Ernst and Markus H allegedly attended the meeting.

On 2 June 2019, Lübcke's body was found on the terrace of his home in the village of Istha.

What has the main defendant said?

Stephan Ernst has given at least three accounts of what happened on the day of the shooting.

Shortly after his arrest, Mr Ernst confessed that he had shot Mr Lübcke. His DNA was found on Lübcke's shirt.

A few months later, after changing his lawyer he withdrew his confession and instead accusing Markus H of accidentally firing the deadly shot during a struggle with the politician.

In court, Mr Ernst gave yet another version of events, saying he pulled the trigger, but Markus H was at the scene.

Prosecutors consider Mr Ernst's first confession to be the most credible, deeming the rest to be trial tactics.

In his last words in court, Mr Ernst turned to Mr Lübcke's widow and sons and said: "I am very sorry for what I did to you."

Far-right suspects in court over politician's murder

German politician's murder raises spectre of far-right attacks

Why is the case significant?

During the trial, prosecutors argued Lübcke's murder was the first far-right assassination since Walter Rathenau, the country's Jewish foreign minister, was murdered in 1922.

The 2019 murder shocked Germany, which has grappled with a rising tide of support for far-right politics in recent years, especially in the ex-communist east.

Last month, far-right gunman Stephan Balliet was jailed by a German court for a deadly attack in the eastern city of Halle. Balliet shot and killed a female passer-by and a man at a kebab shop after failing to break into the synagogue in October 2019.

The far-right AfD party is the biggest opposition group in the German parliament and reports suggest the domestic intelligence agency is planning to place it under surveillance over possible links to extremism.