The court in Neubrandenburg has again postponed proceedings in the trial of former SS medical orderly Hubert Z. who is accused of accessory to murder.

The trial opened on 29 February, but since the accused failed appear in court for health reasons, proceedings were rescheduled for 14 March. Again, the accused did not appear in court. Although the court ordered a medical examination of the defendant by specialists, it proved unable to enforce its decision within two months, so that the court itself has now had to suspend tomorrow’s scheduled hearing date.

Commenting on the proceedings in Neubrandenburg and on the court’s conduct Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee stressed in Berlin:

"The organisation of the Auschwitz proceedings in Neubrandenburg and the conduct of the court there are gradually developing into a legal scandal. The court is vacillating between sloppy ignorance and utter disinterest and is failing to do justice to either the subject of the trial or the people attending. Meanwhile, nobody can even be certain, whether the organisational chaos into which this trial is threatening to sink, is due to the incompetence of the participants, or whether it is consciously being tolerated in order to keep the whole subject of Auschwitz out of the court in Neubrandenburg. This all stands in very sad contrast to the current Auschwitz trial in Detmold, in which a clearly committed court is making efforts to reach a conclusion that is worthy of a constitutional state."