East German Official Convicted
A Berlin court on Thursday convicted one of East Germany’s most powerful officials on corruption charges in the first trial of members of the ousted Communist leadership.
The former Politburo member, Harry Tisch, 64, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the chief judge said he was considering giving Tisch a suspended sentence, so Tisch remains free for now.
Prosecutors said that Tisch, as head of the state labor union, took $16,500 in union funds to pay for vacations for himself, his family and a Communist Party crony.
As head of the 9-million-member union, Tisch was one of East Germany’s most powerful officials.
The Berlin Regional Court, after a four-month trial, convicted Tisch on five counts of illegally appropriating union funds for the vacations but acquitted him of charges that he illegally used $19 million of union funds for a Communist youth group festival.
Tisch will get credit for the more than one year he spent behind bars in investigative custody and during part of the trial.
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