Sweden's right-wing extremist 'laser man' killer on trial for murder of Auschwitz survivor
White nationalist John Ausonius killed one woman and injured 10 others in the Stockholm area in 1991-92.
A Swedish white supremacist who is serving life for a series of racially-motivated attacks in Stockholm in the early 1990s has gone on trial in Germany for the murder of an Auschwitz survivor.
Dubbed the "laser man" after the telescopic sight on his gun, far-right extremist John Ausonius killed one woman and injured 10 others in the Stockholm and Uppsala areas in 1991-92.
His shooting spree inspired "lone wolf" terrorists such as Norwegian Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011.
Now Ausonius is accused by German prosecutors of the unsolved murder of a 68-year-old cloakroom attendant Blanka Zmigrod in Frankfurt in 1992.
Ausonius denies the charge but did not oppose extradition to Germany on condition that he will serve any possible jail sentence in a Swedish prison.
The 64-year-old allegedly shot Zmigrod dead in broad daylight while on the run from the shootings in his home country.
Zmigrod, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps including Auschwitz, was working at a hotel in the city's Opernplatz square when she was allegedly accused of stealing an electronic Casio notebook from Ausonius' coat pocket.
It is alleged that Ausonius returned two weeks after visiting the hotel to accuse Zmigrod of the theft shouting "we will meet again".
The following night Zmigrod, who had married a fellow Holocaust survivor, was shot dead at close range by a hooded cyclist as she walked home from work.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has reported that Zmigrod had been a prisoner in four concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
The Guardian reported that Swedish police investigator Stefan Bergquist has said Ausonius smiled and appeared happy when he was told that Zmigrod had Jewish ancestry.
Ausonius, born Wolfgang Zaugg to a Swiss father and a German mother, was jailed for life in 1994 and has applied for early release multiple times.
He was dubbed the Lasermannen, or "laser man" after some of his victims noticed a bead of red light on their clothes in the moments before they were shot.
In interviews following the horrific shootings Ausonius said his goal was to scare immigrants out of the country and discourage others from entering.
