Court: NSU defense team did not violate secrecy

The public prosecutor in southern Germany rejected the complaint against Wolfgang Stahl, Wolfgang Heer, Anja Sturm (pictured above, left to right) on the grounds of "that their actions did not constitute a crime."

The three main lawyers representing suspected neo-Nazi murderer Beate Zschäpe were accused of violating their lawyer secrecy during discussions with the presiding judge, Manfred Götzl.

Absolutely no information was given to the court "regarding the question of guilt or innocence of he defendant," the prosecutor said on Wednesday.

"Rather, what the lawyers told the court was legitimate conduct of defense attorneys, who, as bodies of the administration of justice work independently and impartially."

Attorneys try to quit

The long-running disagreements between Zschäpe and her lawyers came to a head last Friday when the 40-year old filed the complaint.

The defendant has attempted to fire her legal team multiple times over the last year. Her applications, however, have been repeatedly denied by the court. A fourth attorney, Mathias Grasel, with whom Zschäpe seems to coordinate most closely, was appointed several weeks ago.

All three lawyers also previously asked to be withdrawn from the case, but the court rejected their application on the grounds that they had not provided adequate justification for quitting.

Alleged Neo-nazi murders

Zschäpe is the only known surviving member of an alleged killer trio called the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which prosecutors have blamed for 10 murders between 2000 and 2007.

The victims were all residents in Germany - eight men of Turkish origin, a Greek migrant, and a German policewoman.

The gang's two known other members, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, died in 2011 in an apparent murder-suicide while hiding in a camper van after a botched bank robbery.

ksb/kms (AFP, dpa)