The Berlin court found the former employee of the GDR Ministry of State Security (“Stasi”) guilty of the murder of Polish Czeslaw Kukushka in 1974. An 80-year-old Leipzig resident was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Oku.AzAccording to DW, the incident took place on March 29, 1974 at the “Berlin Friedrichstrasse Station” border crossing. A 38-year-old Pole wanted to leave the territory of the GDR and move to West Berlin. However, as he passed through the last border checkpoint, he was shot in the back from a distance of 2 to 3 meters.
The accused refused to testify about the crime of which he was accused.
The murder of the Polish Kukushka by order of the “Stasi”.
According to the investigation, the Saxon resident served in the operational group of the GDR Ministry of State Security and acted with the task of “neutralizing” C. Kukushka. According to German media, he had previously tried to go to West Berlin with a fake bomb at the Polish embassy.
The “Stasi” reportedly caught the man and handed him documents with a fake exit permit. Stasi officers escorted him to the Friedrichstrasse border crossing, but when he crossed the last border checkpoint, shots were fired.
Schoolgirls from the then West German state of Hesse appeared as prosecution witnesses. They were on an excursion in East Berlin and were returning to the West at the time of the murder. According to one of the witnesses, who was in 10th grade at the time, the girls saw a man in a long coat and sunglasses suddenly appear behind Czeslaw Kukushka, who was walking towards the border crossing, and shoot him. Later, teachers at Hesse schoolgirls reported to the police what the children had seen. However, the request sent to the Ministry of Justice for ADR did not yield results.
The decisive proof is the list of awards of the employees of the “Stasi”
It was not until 2016 that evidence emerged that revealed the identity of the alleged killer. The order signed by the Minister of State Security of the GDR, Erich Mielke, names 12 “Stasi” employees who should be rewarded for this murder. According to this document, the defendant was awarded the “Bronze War Order.”
