A former East German secret police agent admitted Wednesday to spiriting Red Army Faction dropouts out of West Germany at the first trial to delve into alleged links between the militant group and the Stasi.
Four former Stasi agents are charged with helping the 10 former Red Army Faction members escape from West Germany in the 1980s, acquire new identities and build new lives in East Germany.Former Col. Harry Dahl, who headed the Stasi's counterterrorism division, admitted to his role in court Wednesday but denied he broke any laws. He said he was acting on orders from the country's leader, Erich Honecker, and according to East German law.
Dahl also accused Honecker and then-West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of agreeing to the plan beforehand and swearing each other to secrecy.
Asked by presiding Judge Peter Faust what those accusations were based on, Dahl said he had "no concrete" evidence other than his interpretation of a conversation between two deputies of Stasi boss Erich Mielke.
Dahl also said the CIA informed West German authorities years ago that the 10 former Red Army Faction members were in East Germany, but West German investigators showed little interest in pursuing the case then.
Chief government spokesman Peter Hausmann in Bonn said the federal government had no "positive evidence" of their whereabouts until after German unification in 1990.
Schmidt could not be reached to comment on the allegations. His office in Hamburg said he was away on vacation.
Honecker died on May 29, 1994.
The four ex-Stasi agents face up to five years in prison if convicted of obstructing justice by preventing West German authorities from pursuing the former Red Army Faction members.
Defense attorneys call the charges absurd, arguing the defendants should be rewarded for keeping the 10 out of circulation in the West. Dahl said their actions actually helped prevent terror attacks.
The Red Army Faction, which grew out of the leftist student movement in the 1960s, staged attacks on NATO and U.S. military targets and West German business leaders for more than two decades.
According to the indictment, Dahl first established contact with the group in the late 1970s. He and the three other defendants then allegedly helped the 10, who wanted out after a failed 1979 assassination attempt on then-NATO commanding general Alexander Haig.
The gang members initially wanted to go to a socialist African country such as Angola or Mozambique, but Dahl allegedly persuaded them to settle in East Germany.
Ex-Col. Guenter Jaeckel is accused of arranging new identities for the 10, and former Lt. Col. Hans-Hermann Petzold and Capt. Gerd Zaumseil of helping them build new lives in East Germany.
The 10, including ex-commandos involved in the 1977 kidnapping and murder of German Employers' Council President Hanns-Martin Schleyer and other dramatic attacks, lost their cover after Stasi files were opened following German unification.
They were rounded up and eight were convicted of various charges, but all have since been released from prison. It is not clear whether any will be called to testify against the ex-Stasi officers.