The expectations of a legal investigation in court are always high, especially for victims.
This is the case with every smaller procedure.
And it is even more so in this process, which was opened on Wednesday: the processing of the threatening letter series NSU 2.0.
This time it's about an entire institution, the Frankfurt police, which is also in the pillory.
An authority that does impressive work every day, enjoys a high level of trust, but in the recent past has repeatedly attracted attention with bad news: right-wing extremist chats in the SEK, weapons that have disappeared from the evidence room - and last but not least the suspicion that officers from the 1st police station could be Accomplices come into consideration for threatening letters that had been sent to lawyer Seda Basay-Yildiz, left-wing politician Janine Wissler and other public figures since August 2018.
The victims never tire of emphasizing that they have doubts about the single perpetrator theory.
That they do not believe that the defendant, Alexander M., planned and wrote all the letters alone.
Even within the police, the “system question” is now being asked: is it really impossible that officers were misguided and helped to obtain information about the victims?
questions will remain
But a courtroom is no place for speculation.
There, what has been brought together in lengthy investigations is presented and sometimes refuted.
There is a lot to be said for the guilt of the accused, as became clear on Wednesday when the indictment was read out.
On the other hand, it will hardly be possible to clarify whether there is a structure of misconduct in the police force.
So questions will remain.
For example, why one was not smart enough to transfer the investigations to the state criminal investigation office of another federal state from the outset, as is also the case with other internal investigations.
If, instead, colleagues investigate against colleagues and, as police circles say, the motto "it can't be one of us" was issued from the outset - then that makes an institution vulnerable.
No matter what will come out in court at the end.