Former East German spy chief Markus Wolf says a Swiss Guard commander slain at the Vatican once served as an East German spy, a Polish newspaper reported Saturday.
The Vatican dismissed the allegation about Alois Estermann as not worthy of consideration. It responded the same earlier in the week when a Berlin tabloid reported without sources that the slain commander had fed secrets to East Germany's Stasi spy agency.The Polish tabloid Super Express said Wolf boasted in an interview that Estermann had "un-remitting access to the Holy Father, and so did we."
Estermann and his wife were fatally shot Monday in their Vatican apartment by a disgruntled Swiss Guard who then killed himself.
Wolf was quoted as saying that the Stasi recruited Estermann in 1979 while he was applying for a job with the Swiss Guard.
"When the acceptance came from the Vatican, his value to us grew incomparably," Wolf said.