By Bond Robertson 
short
A German court sentenced a former Stasi officer to ten years in prison for a murder committed 50 years ago in divided Berlin, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. AP.
An 80-year-old former East German secret police officer was convicted on Monday of murdering a Polish man in 1974.
– It must not be an act carried out by an individual for personal reasons. Judge Bernd Michajka said in his ruling that it was planned and ruthlessly carried out by the Stasi.
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He was shot in an ambush
The defendant, who has remained anonymous in line with German privacy rules, is said to have shot 38-year-old Polish citizen Czeslaw Kokoczka in a 1974 ambush.
According to court documents, Kokoczka threatened the Polish embassy with a fake bomb in order to obtain permission to travel to West Berlin.
The Stasi decided to pretend that they had agreed to his departure.
The prosecution explained that he obtained exit documents and accompanied him to the border crossing at Friedrichstrasse train station in East Berlin.
The accused, who was 31 years old at the time, was given the task of “defusing” the Polish man.
After Kokoczka passed the final checkpoint, the defendant allegedly shot him in the back from a hiding place.
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remained unresolved
The case remained unsolved for decades, until crucial information about the identity of the shooter emerged in the extensive Stasi archives in 2016.
Defense lawyer Andrea Liebscher said that it had not been proven that her client fired the fatal shot, and demanded acquittal.
The ruling can be appealed.