"The start of the trial on monday is not endangered by this," emphasized OLG spokeswoman andrea titz. The hotly disputed accreditation procedure is also once again being dealt with by the federal constitutional court.
The higher regional court (OLG) had completely redetermined the 50 trial reporters with fixed seats by lot on monday, after the constitutional court had objected to the original procedure – according to the chronological order of the inquiries. A notary did the drawing. According to a report by the ARD "tagesschau", however, the application of the MDR-horfunk accidentally ended up in the basket for the public television stations. In addition, the lot had fallen on a freelance WDR employee, who had actually long since withdrawn his application. He now wants to give up his place.
"We have carried this out to the best of our knowledge and belief," OLG spokeswoman andrea titz told "bavarian television". "Since the documents and the raffle baskets are still stored unchanged, the drawing of this one seat can still be done this week by the notary prof. Dr. (dieter) mayer to be carried out."It was a place for german-language media based in germany.
The german union of journalists (dju) called the mishaps inexcusable. "This permanently shakes confidence in the rule of law and casts a lasting shadow on the NSU trial," said executive director cornelia hab.
On tuesday, the constitutional complaint of freelance journalist martin lejeune was received in karlsruhe, as the court confirmed. He had lost his reservation from the first accreditation procedure when the seats were redrawn on monday. The "welt" group, "die zeit" and the "frankfurter allgemeine zeitung" (FAZ) want to forego a lawsuit in order to postpone the start of proceedings on 6. May not be at risk. They had all come away empty-handed from the draw.
Lejeune argues, among other things, that "the place should not simply be taken away again from the journalists who were successful in the previous award procedure". However, the constitutional court had expressly opened this possibility when it objected to the original award. In the first attempt, no turkish media were allowed, although eight out of ten murder victims of the neo-nazi terror cell "national socialist underground" (NSU) came from turkey.
"Zeit" editor-in-chief giovanni di lorenzo told radio station bayern 2 that any lawsuit would further delay the start of the trial. "We will refrain from (. ..) because there is a much greater good than our own satisfaction, namely that the relatives of the murder victims can finally attend their trial."The editor-in-chief of the "welt" group, jan-eric peters, said that a later lawsuit was by no means ruled out "because of the precedent-setting nature of the matter. The editors-in-chief of the "tagesspiegel" newspaper, stephan-andreas casdorff and lorenz maroldt, declared that the lottery was unnecessary and the result laughable.
Some editors without a firm reservation may still be able to report from the courtroom, because swapping is allowed this time. The dpa group, for example, makes one of the seats allocated to it available to the news agencies agence france-presse (AFP) and thomson reuters. The newspaper group "straubinger tagblatt/landshuter zeitung" cedes its reservation to the agency AP. The online editorial team of the women’s magazine "brigitte" wants to share its place with the magazine "stern" within the publishing house.
The former president of the federal constitutional court, hans-jurgen papier, argued for a video transmission from the courtroom. "In my opinion, such a transfer is not a mandatory legal requirement. But it would be a question of pragmatic wisdom", papier told the "welt". The teacher of constitutional law spoke of "oddities" that were in the nature of the lottery.
The trial of the racially motivated murders and attacks of the "national socialist underground" (NSU) is scheduled to begin on 6. May start. Despite the quarrels, the expectations of the population are high. 42 percent of germans said in a forsa survey for the magazine "stern" that the judicial processing of the neo-nazi murders could improve germany’s image in the world. The main defendant, beate zschape, is accused of complicity in the crime. Four alleged helpers and supporters are also accused.