Was the far-right extremist "Freital Group" a terrorist cell? And did the seven men and one woman who made up the group – named for the small city Saxony where they operated – accept the fact that people would be killed in the attacks they carried out on refugee shelters and on political opponents?

Those fundamental questions will be addressed Wednesday by the Dresden Higher Regional Court. Exactly one year after the trial began, the court is set to hand down a verdict in the first terror trial ever to be held in the eastern German state of Saxony. It will do so in a specially constructed, high-security courtroom inside the Dresden state penitentiary.

Federal prosecutors have charged the defendants with a long list of crimes: the creation of and membership in a terrorist organization, detonating explosives, attempted and completed counts of grievous bodily harm, and attempted murder.

Group's goal was to create 'a climate of fear'

In his closing arguments, Senior Federal Prosecutor Jörn Hausschild said he was convinced that the group's crimes were based on xenophobic, right-wing extremist and Nazi ideology. The eight individuals, he claimed, operated in varying capacities with the aim of creating "a climate of fear."

Members of the group, however, saw themselves as protecting the German people – from refugees, immigrants and those with different political views. The accused are also convinced that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a traitor to the German people. Members discussed and planned who would "get it next" in so-called dark chats online and via telephone.

The accused group members targeted hunted refugee aid workers and left-leaning politicians. They acquired explosives – 130 times more powerful than those legally allowed in Germany – in the Czech Republic. They made coded reference to the explosives by calling them "vegetables."

Read also: The roots of extremism in eastern Germany

During closing arguments, Senior Prosecutor Hausschild said that it had simply been a matter of good fortune that no one was actually killed during the attacks the group carried out. The "Czech firecrackers," he argued, packed a deadly explosive potential, especially in instances in which they were planted on windows – at which point they became fragmentary bombs. The defendants are accused of having done just that in an attack on a refugee center. The federal prosecutors charge that such incidents constitute attempted murder.

Police warned Freital-based neo-Nazis

Some individual police officers appear to have been more than sympathetic to the Freital Group and its activities. According to media reports, leading members of the Freital Group testified they had received information from one 51-year-old police officer. He is accused of having provided the group with information pertaining to the location and duration of police patrols in the areas where they carried out the attacks. The officer has meanwhile been suspended.

In fact, it is only thanks to the German Federal Prosecutor's Office that the Freital Group even became the subject of a trial of this scope. Federal prosecutors took over the case and its investigation from Saxony's state prosecutors in what has become an absolute disgrace for the state's justice department.

The strategy of the defense team has been to claim that the Freital Group was neither a criminal nor a terror organization. Andreas Scheider, defense attorney for group member Patrick F., claimed, "what we have here is a series of spontaneous acts." Like his colleague, Michael Sturm, who is defending group member Timo S., also raised doubts about the lethal potential of the explosives used in the crimes.

Complex burden of proof

Criminal legal expert Nikolaos Gazeas an expert on paragraph 129a of the German Penal Code (StGB), sees two possibly critical points that could hinder prosecutors from winning a conviction for the founding of, membership in or the abetting of a terrorist organization. He says that paragraph 129a of the StGb requires proof of a minimum level of established organization within the group. Gazeas says the Freital Group's defense team is trying to cast doubt on that point by emphasizing the "spontaneous" nature of the attacks.

Read also: Why Germany's far-right flourishes in Dresden

Moreover, it must be proven that the group exhibited an overriding will to achieve terrorist aims. Proof of that would be evidenced if the group's members worked in a coordinated fashion, as Gazeas told DW. He, too, is curious to hear the verdict of the Dresden judges. His careful prognosis based on media reports so far: "It is not out of the question that the structure and activities of the Freital Group did cross the legal threshold defining what a terror organization is."

Nevertheless, Gazeas, who also teaches law at the University of Cologne, says even if the Dresden court were to come to that conclusion, it will not likely be the last word on the issue: "I am certain that the defense team will appeal, then it will be up to the Federal Court of Justice to decide."

First published: March 6, 2018

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