German Court Convicts Old Leadership of Crimes in Unprecedented

On September 16, 1993, a German court convicted three former East German leaders of inciting border guards to kill citizens who tried to flee westward The proceedings were highly unuualy by their retroactivity, the intensely political nature, and the practical difficulties due to the ages of the defendants and evidence. Judge Hans Boss, in pronouncing the sentences, ruled that the three were responsible for “maintaining border conditions as they were for many years.” He found that two defendants, Mr. Kessler and Mr. Streletz had “directed border troops in their work and thereby assumed responsibility for the death of refugees.”…[more]