Berlin
The last trial stemming from government shootings at the Berlin Wall came to an end this week, when two former East German officials were found guilty of abetting the murders of three people trying to escape to the West. From 1961 to 1989, about 1,000 people were shot trying to sneak from communist East Berlin to democratic West Berlin. Since the wall came down in the peaceful revolution of 1989 and the two Germanys reunited, hundreds of former border guards and officials have been convicted of murder, though most have received suspended sentences. Former East German Politburo members Hans-Joachim Boehme, 74, and Siegfried Lorenz, 73, the last to be charged, were each sentenced this week to one year of probation.
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