Just when the defendant has reached the climax of his remarks and accuses the government of violating the constitution, since it let the asylum seekers into the country without steering, he is interrupted by the presiding judge Christoph Koller.

A. may of course say what he wants.

But a lot will be able to be said later about the political level of the proceedings before the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court.

Before that, it should be about the facts.

Would the accused want to say something about this?

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.

  • Follow I follow

    Franco A. consults with his two lawyers.

    After that, it's as if A. and his defenders had let the air out.

    From the point of view of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the Bundeswehr soldier A. is said to have prepared attacks on politicians and public figures; beforehand he is said to have assumed the identity of a refugee in order to hold him responsible for the crime.

    The defense strategy, on the other hand, is to portray the possible disguise as a refugee as a rulership of injustice.

    So far it has not been able to get through to court.

    According to its own information, did not have to explain it

    On the second day of the negotiations, A. initially showed himself to be an exemplary servant of this state, spoke of moral courage and said that it was “never” his intention to cause someone harm. Helping people in need is a "duty". But he admits that he “disregarded the law” by posing as a refugee at the end of 2015. He “wanted to make up his own mind”. It becomes clear that it was easy for him, as a supposed Christian Syrian who astonishingly spoke French but hardly a word of Arabic, to obtain protection.

    To do this, he commuted between his office in Illkirch, France, and the various communal accommodations in Bavaria, always taking the “refugee backpack” with clothes and the “refugee cell phone” with him. He also got away with it at the hearing at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. “I can't remember getting into an explanation,” says A.

    His double life was revealed when he flew to Vienna in April 2017 to pick up a pistol that he had hidden in an airport toilet.

    He was arrested.

    A. doesn't want to say anything about this.

    Nothing about why he made video and sound recordings of himself in the refugee shelters.

    Especially nothing about the main allegation of the prosecution, the preparation of an attack.

    In return, he later continued his statement, accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel of "breaking the oath" for having "harmed" the country by letting the migrants in.

    He protects the refugees himself, calling them his “brothers and sisters” who are “no less honorable” than his “compatriots”.

    Friends are said to have hidden weapons and ammunition for him

    The questioning of the first witness in the trial raises doubts about his account. It is an employee of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) who investigated the proceedings for the public prosecutor's office. According to him, the almost 33,500 chat messages on A's mobile phone were evaluated. In addition, dozens of data carriers, notes and diaries that were found on him and on people around him. The investigators also found weapons and ammunition, some of which are said to have been hidden by his friends as a "friendship service" for A. The witness reported racist statements in chats. A friend of A. described refugees as "scrap". "Save that for later," A. is supposed to have replied.

    It remains unclear whether all of this was used to carry out an attack whose possible victims, according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, were already recorded by name on a piece of paper. However, the picture of the individual perpetrator that was drawn before the trial began may not seem correct. A., whom the federal prosecutor accuses of right-wing extremist attitudes, was well connected. In the case of the pistol, too, there could be confidants. According to the BKA official, he sent two photos of the hiding place at Vienna Airport to a Whatsapp chat group, and shortly before and shortly afterwards he made phone calls to a member of the group, a Bundeswehr reservist.

    A more extensive statement from the defendant was expected, says the presiding judge, now it will probably be a “very long main hearing” and a “large-scale hearing of evidence” will be necessary. Videos should now be viewed on Friday that A. is said to have recorded as a "refugee".