As Germany prepares to commemorate the event that shot him briefly into the limelight, Egon Krenz, the East German leader who opened the Berlin Wall 10 years ago, faces the prospect of spending the next six years behind bars.
A court in Leipzig yesterday upheld a manslaughter conviction against Krenz and two other former members of the East German politburo for their role in the shootings of easterners attempting to flee to the West.
Krenz, Gunther Kleiber and Gunther Schabowski, the man who announced the opening of the wall on East German television 10 years ago today, were sentenced in 1997 to 6 1/2 years in prison. They have been on bail pending an appeal, but yesterday's decision by Germany's highest appeal court means that the three men could be jailed within weeks.
Krenz said he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn the verdict, which he claimed was a "political decision" timed to coincide with today's anniversary.
"I think they wanted to show again very clearly who has the say in Germany," he told reporters as he left the court.
Since German unification in 1990, hundreds of former border guards and officials have been convicted of charges relating to the shooting of people attempting to flee across the Wall. But Krenz and his two former colleagues are the first high-ranking politicians to be held accountable for ordering the shoot-to-kill policy.
During his appeal, Krenz argued that, as a satellite state of the Soviet Union, East Germany had no influence over the border policy, but the presiding judge, Ms Monika Harms, rejected the argument.
"It was in their own interests to maintain the border system, so they just accepted that the death of escapers would come along with that," she said.
Krenz eased his mentor, Erich Honecker, out of power in October 1989 as East Germans took to the streets in their thousands to protest against the regime. In an attempt to appease public opinion, Krenz decided to open the Wall on November 9th but was ousted by the party a few weeks later.
Honecker died in 1994 at the age of 81 after he sought refuge in Chile. He was deemed too ill to face trial for manslaughter over the border shootings. Mr Erich Mielke, the former head of the Stasi secret police, who oversaw the system of repression that crushed dissent in East Germany, is still alive at 91 and lives reclusively in east Berlin.
As he pondered his fate yesterday, Krenz pointed up the contrast between his position and that of the former Soviet leader, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, who will be among the main speakers at today's official ceremony to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Wall.
"While some make speeches in the Bundestag, others are in the dock," he said.
