2 Key German Trials Take Surprise Turns

Two of the most significant trials in the young history of reunited Germany took extraordinary turns Monday when a legendary Cold War spymaster was convicted of treason--and then set free--and a drunken joy rider allegedly confessed to the firebombing deaths of three foreigners.

To shouts of “shame” and “disgusting” from Communist supporters, a court in this western German city found former East German intelligence chief Markus Wolf guilty of masterminding an efficient and notorious spy network against West Germany, his avowed enemy of four decades.

The court sentenced Wolf, once dubbed “the man without a face” because of his carefully guarded obscurity, to six years in prison but agreed to let him go until a constitutional challenge to the trial is settled, probably next year.

Although Wolf, 70, fled Germany and sought refuge in Moscow after the collapse of the East German regime, he eventually gave himself up and has dutifully reported for appearances during the seven-month trial.

“Mr. Wolf poses no risk of flight,” said Presiding Judge Klaus Wagner in releasing the grinning spy on the same $150,000 bail posted two years ago.

In the northern town of Schleswig, meanwhile, a seminal case involving right-wing violence against Germany’s sizable foreign community was derailed at the eleventh hour, when defense attorneys produced a new suspect who allegedly confessed to police over the weekend.

The Schleswig-Holstein state court had announced that the five-member panel of judges was ready with verdicts in the 45-day trial of two skinheads accused of hurling Molotov cocktails into a house and killing a Turkish grandmother and two girls in the town of Moelln.

That attack set off the country’s first serious round of soul-searching about the growing neo-Nazi threat, and the trial became a test case of the government’s newly professed commitment to crack down on right-wing hooligans.

Avowed neo-Nazi Michael Peters, 26, who has also been charged in two other attacks, allegedly reported his horrific deed to police, ending his telephone call with “Heil Hitler!” Federal prosecutors--brought in as a show of government resolve--have asked for maximum sentences, which would mean life for Peters and 10 years for his alleged accomplice, Lars Christiansen, 20, who is being tried as a juvenile.

But the judges abruptly postponed the verdicts Monday, when defense attorneys revealed to a hushed courtroom that a machinist from eastern Germany had confessed the crime to police following a high-speed chase in the eastern state of Brandenburg. Police said Heiko Meinke also told them that he was “politically on the right.” He has not been charged in the case.

Speaking from behind bulletproof glass in a courtroom where all visitors were searched, the judges immediately summoned Meinke and two police officials to the witness stand.

Wearing a thick denim jacket and with his hair neatly cropped, Meinke told the court he was arrested early Saturday after downing 10 to 15 shots of schnapps to celebrate his 25th birthday and after taking a joy ride in a sports car with a girl he met at a discotheque. He said he remembered very little else about the evening, including the alleged confession.

“I was never in Moelln,” Meinke told the judges, professing his innocence. Meinke also denied being a neo-Nazi and said he was hundreds of miles away in bed with a knee injury on Nov. 23, 1992, the night of the Moelln attack.

Prosecutor Klaus Pflieger said Meinke’s possible involvement in the attack had nothing to do with the case against Peters and Christiansen, who listened to the surprise testimony dispassionately. Pflieger urged the judges to issue their verdicts and sentences. (Under German law, defendants are usually sentenced at the same time verdicts are rendered.)

But defense attorney Wolfgang Ohnesorge said the new development raised too many questions in a case that has been built largely on circumstantial evidence and the controversial testimony of an 8-year-old girl who witnessed the attack from a nearby window. Both Peters and Christiansen, who recanted early confessions, have pleaded innocent.

Saying he wants the long trial--with 173 witnesses--”to end cleanly,” Presiding Judge Hermann Ehrich set a new hearing for Wednesday, when judges will learn the results of Meinke’s blood-alcohol test from Saturday and hear from his former roommate about Meinke’s whereabouts the night of the Moelln attack.

“It is better to be absolutely certain that nothing has been overlooked--positive or negative--that could result in the wrong verdict,” said Norbert Wuestefeld, spokesman for the Schleswig court.

Researcher Reane Oppl contributed to this story.