> Egon Krenz, East Germany’s last hard-line Communist leader, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison after 115 days of testimony and evidence in what has come to be known here as “the Politburo trial.” >; > “The defense of the border was placed above human life” in Krenz’s system, presiding Judge Josef Hoch said in a verdict that took two hours to read. > > Two other former Politburo members, Guenther Kleiber and Guenther Schabowski, received sentences of three years each, as Germany continues the slow and difficult process of sorting out blame and punishment for the woes and crimes of the former East Germany. > > Although the Politburo, once the most powerful body in the East German system, consisted of 22 members, few of those have stood or probably will stand trial. Some have been deemed too old or too sick; for others, there has been a lack of admissible evidence. The Politburo trial started out with six defendants, but three were allowed to drop out because of frailty and ill health. > > To further frustrate justice-seekers in Germany’s post-Cold War era, other top Eastern officials have been tried but acquitted because their activities, however inhumane, were legal under East German law. > > https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-26-mn-26083-story.html