Ex-Stasi officer sentenced to 10 years for Cold War murder

An 80-year-old former Stasi officer was sentenced Monday to ten years in prison for a Cold War-era murder.

Martin Naumann shot 38-year-old Polish citizen Czesław Kukuczka at a border crossing in Berlin 50 years ago, a state court has ruled.

In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, at least 140 people died trying to escape the West by crossing the Berlin Wall from the east. At the time, the city was divided into East Berlin, which was then under Soviet control, and West Berlin, which was an ally of NATO.

The Berlin state court said in its ruling on Monday that there was no doubt that Kukuczka was shot in an ambush on March 29, 1974 by Naumann on behalf of the East German secret police, the German news agency dpa reported.

“It was not the act of an individual for personal reasons, but planned and mercilessly carried out by the Stasi,” said chairman Bernd Miczajka.

The then-first lieutenant fired the shot “at the end of a chain of command,” dpa reported.

It is the first time that a former Stasi officer has been found guilty of murder.

According to German law, the country’s media are not allowed to identify the suspect, and The Associated press did not do this.

Points of sale, including the WashingtonPost And France24 mentioned him, and Newsweek also chooses this.

The process lasted more than six months, during which Naumann listened attentively and took notes, but said nothing.

His lawyer said her client denied the allegations.

The Berlin public prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of twelve years, while the lawyer had demanded acquittal.

Lawyer Andrea Liebscher argued that it had not been proven that her client had fired the fatal shot. dpa reported.

The verdict can still be appealed.

Father-of-three Kukuczka allegedly brought a fake bomb to the Polish embassy to threaten officials into letting him leave for West Berlin on March 29, 1974.

Stasi archives show that Kukuczka was bluffing and did not have a bomb.

The Stasi decided to pretend to approve his departure.

According to prosecutors, Kukuczka was provided with exit documents and escorted to a border crossing at the Friedrichstrasse train station in East Berlin.

Naumann, 31, was told to “defuse” the Kukuczka, prosecutors said.

After passing the last checkpoint, the suspect allegedly shot him in the back from a hiding place.

The shooting was witnessed by several schoolgirls waiting in line at the border crossing.

The murder was covered up and the identity of the shooter was not known until 2016 when details emerged from the Stasi archive. dpa reported.

Archive data showed that Naumann and eleven other men received medals for their “prudent, courageous and decisive actions, and their exemplary performance of their duties in successfully averting a terrorist attack.”

A separate document said Naumann “carried out this task carefully, courageously and decisively and was able to neutralize the terrorist by using a firearm.”

Investigators initially thought the case would amount to manslaughter, which is subject to the statute of limitations in Germany.

But prosecutors argued that the required murder criterion of “malice” was met.

Murder is not covered by the statute of limitations in Germany,

The trial was deemed of such historical importance that the trial was recorded and will be available to the state archives.

“It is more than the conviction of an individual perpetrator. It is a conviction, a guilty verdict against the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) for joint murder,” said Hans-Juergen Foerster, the lawyer for the Kukuczka family.

“It is also a guilty verdict against the GDR government, which had such a secret service.”

This article contains reporting from The Associated Press