Former Chief of E. German Spy Ring Charged : Justice: But unprecedented legal issues make it uncertain whether Markus Wolf can be brought to trial.

Criminal charges were filed Thursday against Markus Wolf, the legendary “man without a face” who ran Communist East Germany’s devastatingly successful network of Cold War spies.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office accused Wolf, 69, of espionage, bribery and treason in an indictment that ticked off a dozen of his most dazzling exploits.

Wolf, who surrendered to German officials earlier this year, remained free on bond pending trial.

While acknowledging that “the exact number of espionage cases” in which Wolf was involved is not known, the prosecutor’s office estimated that “500 to 600” West Germans betrayed their country for the enigmatic “Mischa.”

If convicted, Wolf could be sentenced to life in prison on the treason charge alone. But unprecedented legal issues surround his case, leaving it uncertain still whether Wolf can be brought to trial at all.

It is up to the Constitutional Court to decide whether the united Germany can try East Germans for espionage and related charges when West Germans essentially committed the same crimes against East Germany.

The indictment alleges that Wolf “determined the goals and scope” of East Germany’s espionage operations against West Germany from 1953 to 1986, when he retired from the Ministry of State Security, or “Stasi,” as the secret police were known.

Top on the list of cases cited by the prosecutor was that of Guenther Guillaume, an East German mole who penetrated the heart of the Bonn government and led to the downfall of former Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1974.

Guillaume was sentenced to 13 years in prison but was released in a 1981 spy swap between the two Germanys.

A statement by Chief Prosecutor Alexander von Stahl said Wolf personally met with Guillaume on at least three occasions in East Berlin to “issue instructions for espionage activities, in particular the . . . planting of agents within the branches of federal government.”

The indictment--a veritable “A-List” of spies--also revealed how embarrassingly corruptible Bonn’s own intelligence agencies were during the Cold War.

Since the two Germanys united in 1990, investigators have discovered that every branch of West Germany’s intelligence network was riddled with double agents.

Besides Guillaume, the cases outlined in Thursday’s indictment include that of Klaus Kuron, the No. 2 man in the Bundesnachtrichtendienst, Bonn’s equivalent of the CIA. Kuron, whose job was to “handle” East German agents secretly working for West Germany, spied on his own spies in exchange for about $460,000.

Kuron was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this year. The indictment against Wolf claims he personally interviewed Kuron before putting him on the payroll and later awarded him a medal for his good work.

Wolf himself was known as “the man without a face” because of his canny ability to avoid being photographed.