2024-10-07 12:31:42
Former Stasi employee Manfred N., accused of shooting a Pole 50 years ago at the Berlin border in Friedrichstrasse, should be sentenced to twelve years in prison, according to the general prosecutor’s office. The 80-year-old N., who now lives in Leipzig, is guilty of the treacherous murder of Czeslaw Kukuczka, prosecutor Henrike Hillmann said in her statement on Monday.
On March 29, 1974, Kukuczka attempted to force his departure to the West using a fake bomb. In the so-called Palace of Tears, the 38-year-old Pole was shot in the back. He died the same day from his injuries in an East Berlin hospital. The trial against N. began at the Berlin District Court in March 2024.
The defense asks for acquittal
Defense lawyer Andrea Liebscher, however, asked for his client’s acquittal. There is no evidence that N. was the perpetrator of the attack other than the mention of his name in the Stasi archives, which have also apparently been changed. Also in this case the murder characteristic of betrayal was not carried out, since the victim was still on the territory of the GDR and therefore still had to consider himself in danger and could not have been innocent. It was therefore a homicide.
The criminal law in force at the time of the crime plays a role in the requested sentence, in this case that of the GDR, which provided for a prison sentence of no less than ten years up to life imprisonment for murder. The fact that a different legal system is in force today affects the sentence. According to the court, the requested twelve years in prison is the lightest sentence.
Surviving relatives ‘only interested in determining guilt’
Kukuczka’s surviving relatives, his three children and a sister, did not follow the trial personally, but were represented by lawyers as co-plaintiffs. On Monday, like the prosecutor’s office, they asked for the defendant to be convicted of murder, but refrained from commenting on the sentence. According to former federal prosecutor Hans-Jürgen Förster, who represents Kukuczka’s daughter, she “is only interested in the determination of guilt by a democratically legitimized court, not in the sentencing or even in the execution of the sentence.”
Defendant Manfred N., who did not testify at the trial, said Monday only that he did not want to provide further information. The ruling is expected next Monday.
#Twelve #years #prison #required #Stasi #employees