Former Stasi Officer (80) Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison for 1974 Murder

berlin - A former Stasi officer has been sentenced to ten years in prison for a murder in 1974. He was found guilty of shooting a Polish man at a border crossing between East and West Germany in Berlin.

A former Stasi officer, 80-year-old Martin Naumann from Leipzig, was a first lieutenant in the East German secret police. On March 29, 1974, he was ordered to 'neutralize' 38-year-old Pole Czeslaw Kukuczka at the Friedrichstrasse border crossing in Berlin. He then shot the man in the back from a distance of 2 to 3 meters.

Over fifty years later, the regional court in Berlin found the former Stasi officer guilty and sentenced him. The imposed sentence is slightly lower than the twelve years requested by the prosecutors.