GERMANY: A BERLIN COURT ISSUES WARRANTS AGAINST FORMER EAST GERMAN COMMUNIST LEADER EGON KRENZ AND HIS DEPUTIES TO PREVENT THEM LEAVING GERMANY

Record ID: 649379

  • Title: GERMANY: A BERLIN COURT ISSUES WARRANTS AGAINST FORMER EAST GERMAN COMMUNIST LEADER EGON KRENZ AND HIS DEPUTIES TO PREVENT THEM LEAVING GERMANY
  • Date: 14th November 1996
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 14, 1996/FILE) (RTV) (NOVEMBER 14, 1996) SLV/CU EXTERIOR OF COURT HOUSE (2 SHOTS) 0.08 LV INTERIORS OF COURT HOUSE (2 SHOTS) 0.19 SV EGON KRENZ, FORMER HARDLINE COMMUNIST LEADER OF EAST GERMANY, ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 0.34 SV FORMER POLITBURO MEMBER GUENTER SCHABOWSKI ARRIVING 0.42 SV FORMER POLITBURO MEMBER GUENTHER KLEIBER ARRIVING 0.47 SV FORMER POLITBURO MEMBER HORST DOHLUS ARRIVING 0.56 CU ARREST WARRANT PINNED ON COURT ROOM 1.00 SLV/SV OF JOURNALISTS OUTSIDE COURT ROOM (3 SHOTS) 1.12 SV KRENZ LEAVING COURT ROOM 1.17 MCU EGON KRENZ SAYING, "THIS VERDICT SHOWS THAT THERE IS A TWO-TIER LEGAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY. CITIZENS FROM THE FORMER WEST GERMANY CAN RELY ON A RETROSPECTIVE LAW, WHEREAS EAST GERMANS CANNOT. THAT MEANS THAT WE NOW HAVE FIRST AND SECOND CLASS CITIZENS IN GERMAN SOCIETY." (GERMAN) 1.36 SV PEOPLE TALKING 1.39 MCU EGON KRENZ SAYING, "YOU MUST UNDERSTAND, I ONLY BELIEVE IN FACTS. IF FACTS ARE IMPORTANT, THEN IT MUST BE RESPECTED THAT I DEALT WITHIN THE LAW OF A SOVEREIGN STATE. I AM SURPRISED THAT THERE IS A KIND OF PERSECUTION AGAINST ME SINCE YESTERDAY'S HIGH COURT DECISION. AND I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT I DO NOT GET UPSET BY ANYTHING, I WILL NOT BE BROUGHT DOWN BY THIS, NOT YESTERDAY AND NOT TOMORROW."(GERMAN) 2.11 MCU CAMERAMAN 2.14 SV/LV KRENZ LEAVING (2 SHOTS) 2.48
  • Embargoed: 29th November 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAB770Z4W6E61VPUNSAB5IMPB3C
  • Story Text: A Berlin court has issued arrest warrants against former East German communist leader Egon Krenz and three of his deputies to prevent them leaving Germany following a ruling that they could be held legally responsible for border killings during the Cold War.
    ------------------------------------------------------------------- The court, trying Krenz and his former comrades for manslaughter, upheld a request for the warrants by prosecutors who said a higher court ruling that East German leaders could be jailed for border killings had increased chances they would flee.
    Krenz and his co-defendants have been on trial for the past year, accused of responsibility for the deaths of East Germans killed as they tried to flee to the West over the Berlin Wall or the fortified Cold War frontier between the two Germanys.
    Although the court granted the prosecutors' request, it said the four would not have to be placed in custody. They would, however, have to surrender their passports and face severe restrictions on their movements.
    Krenz, who ruled East Germany for three weeks in 1989 after longtime leader Erich Honecker quit, insisted he had no plans to leave Germany and would continue to take part in the trial.
    "I will face this trial because I have nothing to hide," said 59-year-old Krenz, who is on trial with former Politburo members Guenter Schabowski, Guenther Kleiber and Horst Dohlus.
    Germany's highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, ruled on Tuesday that East German leaders could be held legally responsible for border killings, removing an important line of defence Krenz had been using.
    The first effects of the ruling were apparent the following day, when former East German border guard chief Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten was arrested.
    Baumgarten had already been convicted for his part in border killings but had not been jailed pending the Constitutional Court ruling.
    Krenz said the court decisions proved there was one law for west Germans and another for east Germans.
    "We don't just have first and second-class citizens in Germany, we also have first- and second-class law," he said.
    But he was defiant, saying "I won't be brought to my knees -- not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow." The extreme secrecy surrounding East Germany's fortified borders has made it impossible to know how many people were shot dead or killed by landmines as they tried to flee west from the 1950s to the fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989. Estimates range from 250 to 800.
    Berlin courts have convicted 29 lower-ranking border guards of murder but given most of them suspended sentences because they were young recruits following orders. Honecker was let off on health grounds.
    Six former East German generals in charge of border security were sentenced in September to prison terms of between three to six years for instructing guards on how to shoot and lay mines to stop refugees.
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