Honecker to Go on Trial : Accused of Using Post to Rob State

Prosecutors said today they have filed criminal charges against former Communist Party chief Erich Honecker and five other ousted officials accused of using their power to rob the state and live in luxury.

The announcement preceded a crucial party congress that opened tonight in East Berlin. Party leaders were expected to choose their third party leader in three months and radically alter the party structure.

Prosecution spokesman Peter Przybylski told reporters that formal charges were filed against Honecker, former Premier Willi Stoph and four other ex-leaders ousted in the nationwide pro-democracy movement.

“They are accused of damaging the economy of the German Democratic Republic and of personally enriching themselves by abuse of office and corruption,” the spokesman told reporters.

He said the officials’ homes were searched but did not say when the charges were filed or when a trial will occur.

Four of the six are in prison. The 77-year-old Honecker, ousted from power Oct. 18, is too sick to be jailed, and former Politburo member Hermann Axen is having an eye operation in Moscow, Przybylski said.

In addition to Stoph, those under arrest are former Politburo members Guenther Kleiber, Werner Krolikowski and Erich Mielke, he said.

Two months of political upheaval in East Germany set into motion investigations into abuses of power by the ousted Communist elite, whose members allegedly used their high positions to live in luxury off the state.

Honecker has been under house arrest in the lavish residential compound where he and other Politburo members lived.

The Communist Party’s historic emergency congress, held in an East Berlin sports hall, this evening began debating the party’s proposed new program that calls for free elections and broad cooperation with opposition groups.

The congress was to elect a new leadership and reportedly planned to consider changing the Communists’ name to the Socialist Party of Germany and scrapping the leadership hierarchy of a general-secretary, a Central Committee and a Politburo.

East German Premier Hans Modrow delivered the keynote speech to the congress and echoed other calls for Communist Party unity.

“Let us not allow the party to be broken, to go under, but let’s make it clean and strong,” Modrow said as the 3,000 delegates applauded.

“We too are the people,” Modrow said, referring to the slogan widely used by thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators who have taken to the streets to demand democratic reforms and the prosecution of corrupt former officials.

Modrow, one of the few Communists to enjoy popularity, also ruled out reunification of the two Germanys.

“Reunification is not on the agenda,” he said as the delegates broke into long applause.

The party agreed during historic “round table” talks with opposition groups Thursday to hold free parliamentary elections May 6, draft a new constitution and back the dissolution of the despised security police apparatus.