A former agent of communist East Germany’s intelligence agency, the Stasi, has been charged with murder of a Polish national at the border of divided Berlin in 1974, writes German news agency DPA.
The now 79-year-old German is alleged to have fired at the man at a border crossing “with a well-aimed shot in the back from a hiding place,” the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin said on Thursday.
The indictment comes nearly 34 years after the fall of the Berlin wall that divided communist East Germany and West Germany.
According to the prosecution, the investigation went years without making any progress. It was not until 2016 that there was a decisive tip from the Stasi archives, a spokesman explained.
It was initially assumed that the incident was a case of manslaughter, in which case the crime would have been time-barred.
Berlin public prosecutor’s office now considers the murder criterion of “treachery” fulfilled, the spokesman said.
The incident dates to March 29, 1974, when a 38-year-old Polish man is said to have tried to force his departure to West Berlin at the Polish embassy.
The Stasi allegedly tasked the then 31-year-old German employee with rendering the Polish man “harmless,” the public prosecutor said.
After the Pole had passed the final checkpoint at Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse railway station, the suspect allegedly shot him in the back from a hiding place.
The trial of the former Stasi employee is to take place before the Berlin Regional Court.
First, however, a chamber must decide whether the charges will be admitted. The decisive factor will be whether the court follows the prosecution’s argumentation and sees sufficient evidence for a suspicion of murder.
