A court in Berlin sentenced a former Stasi secret police officer to 10 years in prison for a border shooting in 1978

Oct. 14 (UPI) — A former East German secret police officer was found guilty by a Berlin court of murder in the 1978 shooting death of a Polish citizen trying to get to West Berlin.

The ruling, considered the first of its kind against East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, could start a wave of similar cases dating back to when the city and country were physically divided between the Soviet Union and the West.

The officer, identified as Martin Naumann, 80, was sentenced by the court to 10 years in prison in connection with the shooting of Czesław Kukuczka. He was shot in the back while trying to get through the last checkpoint into West Berlin.

For the first time since its fall, a Stasi officer was found guilty of murder for his actions at the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, uniting the German capital for the first time since World War II.

Kukuczka, entering the Polish embassy and East Berlin, lied that he had a bomb with him and demanded permission to go to West Berlin. He was taken to the Friedrichstrasse common station, where he had to pass through several checkpoints on the west side.

Before reaching the final checkpoint, a man approached him from behind and shot him in the back.

Historians linked Naumann to the shooting by reconstructing old Stasi files that had been destroyed. Naumann’s attorneys said that since there was no physical evidence linking him to the incident, he should not be convicted.

The case against Naumann only developed in 2021, when Poland issued a European arrest warrant for him.