German Convicted of Spying for Soviets
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BERLIN — A German who worked for U.S. forces in Berlin was convicted Wednesday of giving Soviet Bloc agents information about American troop movements.
In a confession read as his trial opened, Hans-Friedrich Handschuch, 48, said he had been too gullible in believing East Bloc agents, who told him his reports would protect peace in Germany.
A criminal court convicted him of espionage after a one-day trial, giving him a one-year suspended sentence and ordering him to pay a fine of $2,350.
Prosecutors said he received $14,500 for spying for East Germany and the Soviet Union beginning in 1978.
Handschuch had worked for the U.S. military mission in West Berlin and for the U.S. diplomatic office in eastern Berlin after German unification in 1990.
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