A former East German secret police officer has received a 10-year sentence for the fatal shooting of a Polish man at a Berlin border crossing 50 years ago.
At noon on March 29th, 1974, the 38-year-old Polish man, Czeslaw Kukuczka, appeared at the Polish embassy in East Berlin. He carried a briefcase containing a manhole cover, from which wires dangled, claiming he had a bomb inside and wanted a visa for West Germany.
The ambassador offered him coffee and called the secret police. Documents show that a 12-man Stasi team was assembled quickly to “dispose of” the Polish father of three.
The Stasi officers appeared to yield to the man’s demand and he was escorted to the nearby Friedrichstrasse train station and border crossing. After passing security and visa checks, walking through an underground tunnel towards a train for West Berlin, he was shot in the back at close range and died soon after in a Stasi prison hospital.
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After three previous investigations, the case was closed on Monday with the conviction for murder of the 80-year-old ex-Stasi officer, identified only as Martin N.
The Leipzig-based pensioner has disputed any involvement in the case, almost all documents for which were shredded after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
But a paper uncovered in the Stasi archive in 2016 contained 12 names, including his, as recipients of a special award in recognition of their services in the station killing.
The document confirmed that Martin N, a Stasi officer since 1962, “received a personal mission to render the target harmless using a pistol”.
Monday’s murder conviction, the first of its kind for an ex-Stasi officer, followed testimony from Mr Kukuczka’s widow and three now adult children.
“They are so grateful to the German court that this case took place,” said Rajmund Niwinski, their legal representative in court.
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The family, from Nowa Huta, a socialist model city near Krakow, were not allowed come to East Berlin in 1974. Mr Kukuczka’s body was cremated and the ashes sent to Poland after a cursory investigation.
It remains unclear why he went to East Berlin, though documents suggest he planned to emigrate to the US.
The court also heard testimony from a 65-year-old retired teacher, identified only as Petra L, who was part of a school group in the border crossing tunnel at the time of the shooting.
She remembered seeing a man wearing a black coat and sunglasses, “which was strange as we were underground”, who pulled out a pistol and fired after the Polish man had passed.
“Then doors opened where no doors had been before, uniformed people came out and closed the exit,” she said.
Prosecutors demanded a conviction for murder because the “insidious” shooting happened after Mr Kukuczka had passed all security checks, “at an unsuspecting moment”.
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Leading experts in the period welcomed the ruling. For Maria Nooke, Brandenburg’s state commissioner for addressing East German injustice, the Kukuczka conviction highlighted how the Stasi was no regular secret police.
“They used methods that contradict human rights,” she said, “such as shooting someone from behind, in the back.”
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