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An ex-Stasi officer on Monday received 10 years in prison for murder in connection with a fatal 1974 shooting at a border crossing between the former East and West Germany in Berlin. The 80-year-old defendant from the eastern city of Leipzig was a first lieutenant in the East German secret police, commonly known as the Stasi, at the time of the incident at Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse crossing on March 29, 1974. He was accused of gunning down the 38-year-old Pole Czesław Kukuczka in the back from a distance of 2 to 3 metres, having been tasked with “neutralizing” the victim. More than 50 years la…

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