Trial: Ex-KSK commander defends decision in ammunition affair

A former commander of the Special Forces Command (KSK) has been standing before the Tübingen regional court since Friday because he is said to have allowed soldiers to return suspected stolen ammunition anonymously. The public prosecutor’s office accuses Brigadier General Markus Kreitmayr of failing to cooperate in criminal proceedings in accordance with Section 40 of the Military Penalty Act. The accusation is comparable to the criminal offense of obstruction of justice.

Kreitmayr commented comprehensively on the allegations at the start of the trial. The 55-year-old said he stands by his decision. He was aware that he was in a gray area in terms of disciplinary law. But it was important to him that the elite troops’ ammunition did not fall into the wrong hands. Kreitmayr is considered innocent until the proceedings are legally concluded. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.

Significant stockouts

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the background to the ammunition affair at the KSK in Calw west of Stuttgart is that significant shortages in the ammunition warehouse were discovered during the annual ammunition inventory for 2019. The value of the missing ammunition was around 28,000 euros. Thousands of shots were missing.

The brigadier general was aware of the inventory report. Kreitmayr then decided that the soldiers could return ammunition anonymously and with impunity. The anonymous return of the ammunition in spring 2020 made it impossible to prosecute these crimes. Ultimately, more ammunition was delivered than was missing.

Prosecutor: Ex-commander should have expected theft

Kreitmayr explained in court that he had no evidence of a crime. There was no mention of loss or theft. There was an unacceptable mess, which must have been caused by a considerable amount of sloppiness.

If he had been given appropriate information, he would have acted differently, as the brigadier general emphasized. He assumed that the ammunition had been stored incorrectly or there had been deficiencies in past inventories. The administration of the ammunition was chaotic at the time.

The public prosecutor’s office, on the other hand, is convinced that the KSK commander at the time should have at least expected that some of the ammunition had been stolen. A clear explanation for the shortage has not yet been determined, said the public prosecutor.

The counting team leader who was responsible for the inventory also testified in court. When counting, each cartridge would be counted individually, he reported. There are clear rules for this. The count should be completed within ten working days. The results would be recorded by a third person.

During the inventory in December 2019, significant understocks and, in some cases, overstocks were recorded. First, attempts were made to eliminate counting errors. We counted with other helpers and looked for calculation errors.

Reform program after right-wing radical incidents

The KSK is an elite association of the Bundeswehr. The commandos are responsible for freeing and rescuing hostages abroad, but also for national and alliance defense missions.

The soldiers have special skills when it comes to reconnaissance of targets or for precision attacks. A reform program was prescribed for the association after right-wing extremist incidents occurred. Kreitmayr was commander of the KSK from June 2018 to August 2021.

The fact that errors amounting to tens of thousands of rounds were found at the KSK in the ammunition books were too few and in some cases too many, and kilos of explosives were initially missing, hit political Berlin like a bomb. The ammunition affair at the KSK occupied federal politics for weeks.

Three further hearing dates have been scheduled for the trial until the end of February.