German justice on Monday requested a twelve-year prison sentence against a former agent of the Stasi, the political police of the former GDR, tried for the murder of a Pole who wanted to flee to the West 50 years ago. years. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office accuses Martin Naumann, 80, of having shot his victim in the back at the border post at Friedrichstrasse station, a major crossing point between east and west in the heart of the city then separated by the Wall.
The facts date back to March 29, 1974 and the former lieutenant, aged 31 at that time, made it known through his lawyer that he denied the facts with which he is accused. Since the trial began in March, he has not spoken about the accusations against him. The victim, Czeslaw Kukuczka, first entered the Polish embassy in the former East Berlin with a fake bomb to force his departure to the West.
Alerted by their Polish colleagues, the German secret police made him believe that his exit from the GDR had been accepted, according to the indictment. But just when the man thought he had passed the final checkpoint and was safe, Officer Naumann shot him dead. Employee of a construction company, Czeslaw Kukuczka had three children who joined as civil parties but did not attend the trial. His daughter’s lawyer Hans-Jürgen Förster had indicated that he wanted to show that the accused « was the last link in a chain of command »and said he filed a request for the investigation to be extended to all people decorated by the regime for having « neutralized » M. Kukuczka.
The trial, which is registered due to its historical importance, takes place after decades of investigation, also on the Polish side. A European arrest warrant for murder was issued in the summer of 2021 against Martin Naumann, now retired and residing in Leipzig. The verdict is expected to be delivered on October 14. Since the fall of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, 1949-1990), several protagonists of the communist regime have been tried in Germany. Many of them were perpetrators, such as the East German border guards of the Berlin Wall, which fell 35 years ago, on the night of November 9, 1989. At least 140 people died. between 1961 and 1989 wanting to cross it.
