Germany, former Stasi agent investigated for a 1974 murder: “He hit a man from behind who wanted to escape to West Berlin”

BERLIN. A former agent of the Stasi, the secret police of former communist Germany, is now under investigation by the Berlin prosecutor’s office for the killing in March 1974 of a Polish citizen who was trying to escape to the West. The man is now 79 years old and is said to have shot the victim, then 38 years old, “with a precise shot from behind, from a hidden position”. This was reported by Dpa, which cites the prosecutor’s office of the German capital. Almost 50 years ago, the victim entered the Polish embassy in the GDR, with a fake explosive device, asking to go to West Berlin. The Stasi pretended to agree to the request, allowing the 38-year-old Pole to get to the last checkpoint on Friedrichstrasse, known as Checkpoint Charlie, but then having him assassinated with a bullet in the back, presumably by the 79-year-old now under investigation. The penalty for the charge could now be up to life in prison.