The former East German leader who opened the Berlin Wall went on trial Monday over orders to shoot people escaping to the West. The case was postponed after five minutes when he and a co-defendant tried to remove the presiding judge.
The trial of Egon Krenz, East Germany's last communist boss, and five other members of his ruling Politburo appears the final attempt to punish leaders of the state that disappeared five years ago with unification.German media said it would be one of the country's most spectacular trials since the Nuremberg war crimes proceedings in 1945 that punished Nazi leaders. Krenz contends it is "a clear political show trial."
Krenz, 58, and his co-defendants are charged with manslaughter in a 1,600-page indictment that blames them for the policy of shooting people who tried to escape. If convicted, they could be sentenced to 15 years in prison. They are currently not jailed.
Krenz's predecessor as communist chief, Erich Honecker, was tried on similar charges but was set free in 1993 along with three co-defendants because of poor health. Three others were convicted but judged too frail for jail.
Krenz, a Politburo member since late 1983, was security chief in 1989 and succeeded Honecker as communist boss in October of that year. He gave in to public pressure to open the wall on Nov. 9, 1989; his political career ended two months later when he was kicked out of the party.
Monday, attorneys for Krenz and for 66-year-old Guenter Schabowski, who as Politburo spokesman announced the opening of the wall, immediately petitioned to disqualify Chief Judge Hansgeorg Braeutigam on charges he was biased.
They were granted a week's postponement while a separate court considers the appeal.
Braeutigam presided in the Honecker case but was removed for bias after asking Honecker, who later died of liver cancer in Chile, for his autograph.
Questions about Braeutigam's competency were also raised when he visited Erich Mielke, the chief of East Germany's hated secret police, in jail unannounced.