Former agent of East Germany’s secret police is charged over the 1974 border killing of a Polish man

BERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors say a former member of communist East Germany’s secret police has been charged with murder over the killing of a Polish national at a border crossing in divided Berlin in 1974. The indictment against the 79-year-old man was filed at the state court in the German capital. It relates to an incident in which a 38-year-old Polish man used a fake bomb to try to force Polish Embassy officials to grant him an unhindered exit to West Berlin. East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, allegedly decided to feign authorizing the man’s exit. Prosecutors said Thursday the suspect shot the man in the back from a hiding place after he’d passed the final checkpoint at a border crossing.