Former Stasi officer accused of 1974 border murder

German prosecutors have demanded a 12-year sentence for a former Stasi officer accused of murdering a Polish man at a Berlin border crossing some 50 years ago.

Martin Naumann, a former East German secret police officer now in his early 80s, is alleged to have killed Czeslaw Kukuczka by shooting him at close range as he sought to flee to the West.

On the day of the killing in 1974, Kukuczka is said to have gone to the Polish embassy in East Berlin to demand passage to West Germany.

According to recent historical research, the 38-year-old threatened to detonate a dummy bomb if his demands were not met.

Embassy staff are believed to have approved Kukuczka's request, while alerting East German authorities to the threat.

Stasi officials handed Kukuczka an exit visa and led him to Friedrichstrasse station in central Berlin, one of the best-known border crossings to the West.

Instead of allowing Kukuczka to walk free, Stasi officers were under orders to render the Pole "harmless", according to archival documents.

The phrase is a common euphemism used in Stasi documents to refer to the liquidation of political opponents, according to historians.

Kukuczka had passed through two of three control points before he was shot dead by Mr Naumann, who was concealed behind a screen, according to prosecutors.

At the start of his trial in March, Mr Naumann denied the accusations against him through his defence lawyers but has declined to speak during any of the hearings.

Defence lawyer Andrea Liebscher argued in court today that there was no proof that Mr Naumann was the shooter, or that the killing constituted murder rather than manslaughter.

The verdict is expected next week.

The decades-long delay in bringing the legal proceedings illustrates the challenges Germany has faced in delivering justice to victims of the former communist government.

At least 140 people were killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, and hundreds more while trying to flee East Germany by other means.

Those East German officials who have been prosecuted for communist-era crimes have typically faced manslaughter charges - a lesser charge on which the statute of limitations would have run out in Mr Naumann's case.