Convicted right-wing terrorist Beate Zschäpe's request for early release from prison was denied with a court ruling that she would remain behind bars for at least nine more years.
Munich's Higher Regional Court on Tuesday set her minimum term at at least 24 years and refused to suspend the sentence to probation. By determining her guilt to be particularly severe, the court effectively ruled out her release after 15 years, which, including her time in pretrial detention, would have expired this year.
The Munich court said Zschäpe, currently 51, still had a good chance of leaving prison alive.
The decision is not yet legally binding, and the defense and the Federal Prosecutor's Office can appeal.
Zschäpe had been sentenced to life in prison in 2018 as an accomplice in the National Socialist Underground (NSU) murders that killed 10 people, mainly individuals with an immigrant background as well as a police officer.
The terror group went undetected for a decade. Zschäpe's fellow NSU members, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, injured several people with bomb attacks in Cologne and killed themselves to avoid arrest in 2011.
Under normal conditions, a convict who receives a life sentence in Germany can apply for parole after 15 years.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, along with his counterparts from France, Italy, Poland and the UK, authored an op-ed calling Russia "the most acute and long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security and stability."
In the article, published online and in Tuesday's Tagesspiegel newspaper, the defense ministers wrote they "share a deep conviction" that European countries need to do more to ensure their own security and aim to build "a stronger Europe within a stronger NATO."
The ministers, however, added that the United States would remain an "indispensable ally."
The pronouncement comes as many in Europe are wary of US President Donald Trump's commitment to the NATO military alliance.
The US leader has threatened to leave the group and to seize control of Greenland, a territory of fellow NATO member Denmark. US presidents have repeatedly called for European NATO members to contribute more to the alliance's military capabilities.
As US support for Ukraine also appears to waver, the five defense ministers reiterated their political, military and financial support for Kyiv as it fights of Russia's full-scale invasion.
In Singapore, to start a four-day business-oriented trip that will also bring him to Japan and South Korea, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it was up to European and Asian nations to find their spot amid a changing global order.
"We must assert our interests in an international environment shaped by renewed great-power rivalry," Merz said.
With a view to unpredictable tariffs imposed by the United States under President Donald Trump and trade restrictions from China, Merz emphasized the stability offered by Germany and the rest of Europe.
"This is a deliberate counterpoint to what we are currently seeing. We want to do things differently, and we want to show that there is a better way," Merz said, adding that Europe sought to expand partnerships to increase free trade with open competition, reliability and a rules-based order.
He also called for increased international investment and cooperation.
"Under the federal government I lead, investment opportunities will be continuously improved," Merz said following a meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. "I encounter a great deal of confidence here in Germany and in Europe as locations for investment."
The German leader called for a new free-trade agreement between the 27-member European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), comprising 12 countries across five continents, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Neither the United States nor China is part of the CPTPP.
For his part, Wong said investment in Germany and Europe would continue.
"Many of our investors, including our sovereign wealth funds, have been investing in Germany for a long time," Wong said. "They will continue to invest because they are confident that, in the long term, Germany and Europe have potential."
Merz and Wong agreed their nations would work to expand cooperation in security and defense as well as trade, investment, sustainable energy and artificial intelligence.
