A former Stasi officer, now 80 years old, is said to have shot a man at the GDR border crossing on Friedrichstrasse around 50 years ago. Now the Berlin regional court has sentenced him to ten years in prison.
A former Stasi officer was sentenced to ten years in prison by the Berlin district court for a murder at the border crossing point in Berlin-Friedrichstrasse train station in 1974.
On Monday, the court found it proven that the now 80-year-old convict had shot a Polish citizen during a Stasi operation in the transit area of the train station. This is the first murder verdict against a former Stasi employee.
The public prosecutor’s office had previously demanded twelve years in prison.
“The family should not ask any more questions”
In 1974, the Pole Czesław Kukuczka was shot at the Friedrichstrasse border crossing – presumably by a Stasi officer. The 80-year-old defendant will be in court in Berlin from Thursday. Historian Filip Gańczak describes how the secret services covered up the case.more
Investigations did not make any progress for a long time
According to the prosecution, the then first lieutenant shot the 38-year-old victim from behind from two to three meters away on March 29, 1974 at the busiest border crossing between East and West. At the time of the crime, the defendant belonged to an operational group of the GDR Ministry for State Security and was tasked with “rendering the Pole harmless” after he tried to force his departure with a bomb threat.
The defense attorney for the German convict had demanded acquittal. The man remained silent during the trial. His defense attorney initially said he denied the allegations.
The investigation into the case did not make any progress for many years. According to the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, it was only in 2016 that a decisive clue to the possible identity of the shooter came from the Stasi records archive. However, the authorities initially assumed it was a case of homicide. In this case the crime would have been statute-barred. In the end, however, the public prosecutor saw the murder characteristic of insidiousness fulfilled.
The victim Czeslaw Kukuczka
The defendant denied allegations at the start of the trial
According to the prosecution, the victim was a man who had previously used a dummy bomb to break into the Polish embassy in what was then East Berlin in order to force his departure to the West. State security forces are said to have decided to allow the man to leave the country as a sham. At the same time, they are said to have decided to kill the 38-year-old in the meantime.
According to the prosecution, the then 31-year-old defendant, who was a member of a so-called Stasi operational group, waited behind a screen in the transit area at the last checkpoint and shot the victim in the back from a distance of almost two meters. At the start of the trial in March The 80-year-old accused denied the accusation.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, October 14, 2024, 11:22 a.m
