Defendant denies role in German neo-Nazi killing spree

The main defendant in a German neo-Nazi terrorism and murder trial denied Dec. 9 she was involved in a killing spree targeting migrants that claimed 10 lives and apologised to the bereaved families.

Beate Zschaepe, 40, breaking her silence after some 250 days in the dock, described herself in a statement as a passive, innocent and horrified bystander to the crimes of the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU).
 
Zschaepe for years lived in hiding with neo-Nazis Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, who shot dead eight men with Turkish roots, a Greek migrant and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, before they died in an apparent murder-suicide in 2011.
 
After the men's deaths, Germany was shocked to discover that the killings -- long blamed by police and media on migrant crime gangs and dubbed the "doner (kebab) murders" -- were in fact committed by a far-right cell with xenophobic motives.
 
Prosecutors charge that Zschaepe was an NSU member and aided the crimes, also including two bomb attacks and 15 bank robberies, by covering the men's tracks, handling finances and providing a safe retreat in their shared home.
 
But Zschaepe, who faces a maximum sentence of life in jail, in a statement read out by one of her lawyers insisted she was involved "neither in the planning nor the execution" of any crimes, and that she was "horrified" to learn about them afterwards.
 
She said she did not share the men's racist motivation and told the court: "I reject the accusation of having been a member of a terrorist organisation called NSU".
         
In her deposition, Zschaepe insisted she had stayed with the two men for years because she feared a jail term for complicity, and because she believed...