Metadata
- Title
- SummaryPress conference on the Honecker files with the head of the special group, senior public prosecutor Christoph Schaefgen, and Berlin's justice senator Jutta Limbach (SPD). Topics include the legal clean-up work, the volume of files to be handled, proceedings against Erich Mielke and Harry Tisch, the waste of financial and material resources for the special care in Wandlitz and the question of the start of the proceedings against Erich Honecker.
- ShotlistPress conference with Justice Senator Jutta Limbach (SPD): There's unrest in the conference room, people walking around; empty speaker's table T with sitting journalists in the VG; cameraman from behind; Jutta Limbach, Christoph Schaefgen et al. take their seats at the speaker's table; speaker's table T; Limbach OH; Jutta Limbach OT: "...The Berlin public prosecutor's office is currently facing a particular pressure of expectation/it essentially has the task of dealing with 40 years of a totalitarian regime of injustice under criminal law/ the question of the arrest warrant against Honecker and his arrestability is being put to the public prosecutors and to myself incessantly/ concern is spreading as to whether here again the common maxim 'The little ones will be caught, the big ones will be let go'/ will in fact only those who actually fired at the Wall be held criminally responsible?/ Is it reasonable to doubt that Messrs Honecker, Mielke and comrades are responsible for the order to shoot at the Wall and for what happened in prisons like Bautzen?/ causes me to divide between political and criminal responsibility/ political responsibility for this totalitarian regime of injustice is quickly stated/ political guilt for this regime of injustice was impressively placed on Messrs Honecker, Mielke and his comrades in the autumn of last year/ people condemned him/ he is not yet in a West Berliner - if I may use this geographical expression again - in a West Berlin prison, but the population has long since excluded him/ for the public prosecutors at the Regional Court and here in particular at this working group - at the Berlin Court of Appeal - it is now a matter of following in detail the traces that lead from the concrete act and the concrete perpetrator to those who are politically responsible for the shooting order and for Bautzen/ costs time and patience/ work must be meticulously provided/ This legal clean-up work has dimensions and a political significance that extend far beyond Berlin's borders.../ Appeal to the Federal Minister of Justice and to colleagues in the Länder to make a contribution to this legal and criminal work...", Limbach introduces the head of the working group on government criminality in the GDR / senior public prosecutor Schaefgen; Christoph Schaefgen OT: "...just wants to explain to you why the many questions that have been asked about Honecker...why they certainly can't be answered satisfactorily yet, have already been answered on the evening of the 02. day. October the files of the GDR public prosecutor's office were taken over as far as the proceedings had been initiated from there / this takeover cost a lot of time / procedures include about 1000 tapes / bulging filled LeitzThe first of these prison cases is the case against Erich Mielke/ another against Harry Tisch/ the Mielke complex alone comprises over 200 volumes of files and 200 prison cases/ the public prosecutor's office was required - by virtue of the Unification Agreement - to build on the existing arrest warrant - which continues to apply - and was now obliged to examine it, to what extent the accusations are justified / work has been carried out with almost superhuman commitment by these colleagues / work began already on 03. The period of detention was extended only in exceptional cases/ The Court of Appeals is competent to decide on this matter/ In the case of Mielke and in the case of Tisch, the conditions are met/ Special working pressure required/ The proceedings are to be submitted to the courts so that a decision can be made there on the further continuation of the detention period/ The period of detention is to be extended only in exceptional cases/ According to our Code of Criminal Procedure, detention must be completed after six months at the latest. leads now to the fact that we cannot/will not dedicate ourselves to the proceedings against Honecker with the intensity, which they all surely expected, as soon as we are out of this situation/ as soon as the contingent liabilities no longer force us to concentrate our strength on this complex of proceedings..."; Christoph Schaefgen answers journalists' questions; Christoph Schaefgen OT on the remark that important complexes are not processed in parallel due to lack of personnel: "By virtue of our Code of Criminal Procedure, we are obliged first to process the liability cases/ I have given them the scope/ they will understand that within two weeks it will no longer be possible to perform..."; Limbach OH; Christoph Schaefgen OT on the suspicion: "With regard to Mielke, we can affirm an urgent suspicion insofar as the allegation of abuse of trust has been made in connection with the special care of the Wandlitz Settlement/ we can affirm it insofar as the allegation has been made that the secrecy of correspondence and telephone secrecy has been violated/ we can affirm it insofar as the suspicion exists that Mr. Mielke was involved in the 40th anniversary of the Wandlitz Settlement demonstrations. The GDR has given instructions that arrests be made which may not have been lawful..."; Christoph Schaefgen OT on the torture: "Was not the subject of the arrest warrant so far.../ are obliged to deal with these accusations only..."; Christoph Schaefgen OT on Harry Tisch: "The case against Harry Tisch...is pending before the court/ has been opened, but must now be referred to the Court of Appeals with regard to the question of imprisonment if the competent criminal court considers the continuation of pre-trial detention necessary..."; Sectional views: Limbach OH; speaker's table WA with camera teams and journalists; cameramen on the side; Schaefgen OH; Schaefgen OT: "...are still a long way from having taken note of everything we have taken over/ there are still large amounts of files around completely unprocessed/ we had to devote ourselves first and foremost to the detention cases/ there was no more time for other things."; Schaefgen OT to the question whether on the basis the files looked through so far the impression was won that it came to manipulations: "After the past study of the files I can not confirm this impression in any case"; Schaefgen OT on the accusation that materials were missing: "It was about a volume that could not be found, but out of the wealth of files that were handed over to us, it was not findable/ had the task of putting this file material in order first/ did not think that the statement had to be understood to mean that something had disappeared/should only document what difficulties we were facing"; Limbach OH; Limbach OT: "...we have examined your personal suitability and the Election Committee for Judges has made this decision in each individual case that the respective public prosecutor or judge has in the past been guilty of judgments which do not violate human rights / currently all employment relationships of all public prosecutors and all judges are suspended."; Schaefgen OT: "To the first question: 62.5 million once or four times.../ it is a complex Wandlitz-Siedlung/ in this complex the accusations against the persons Honecker, Mielke, Mittag... are made..I said at the beginning that we could not yet deal with the Honecker complex because of the prison cases/ cannot answer your question as a criminal lawyer/ has to examine the matter thoroughly/ has to follow the lines of command/ needs time."; Schaefgen OT on the question whether the arrest warrant against Mielke could possibly be extended/ start with the Honecker case/ files by Schalck-Golodkowski: "Proceedings against Schalck-Golodkowski will also be dealt with here/ is one of the procedures that are part of this working group/ on the question, when do we start with it, I cannot give you any information/ we are under pressure of the detention cases and will start with the Honecker procedure - a procedure with highest priority - as soon as it is possible for us/ the detention cases have to be dealt with first/ we have to work our way through the files/ arrest warrant requires urgent suspicion and for this I need evidence."; Schaefgen OT on the question of whether he expects Mielke and Tisch to be released from remand: "Release of Mielke and Tisch from remand, whether I expect it is probably not of great interest/ question of liability will be checked/ how it will be answered, I can't say"; Schaefgen OT on the 62.5 million for Wandlitz: "...it is about the special equipment of the settlement Wandlitz, in which the entire SED VIPs were combined and supplied / goods, which could only be procured via western currency / applies from the construction of the settlement to the smallest items of personal need / I can't say any more about it at the moment"; Schaefgen near; Cameraman; observant journalists; Schaefgen close; Limbach OT: "There were 40 prosecutors employed on the east side." Schaefgen OT gives an example of a file management problem; Sound failure: Journalist on the side with notepad and dictation machine; journalist and journalist OH from the front; Press T seen from the speaker's table; Man close; Writing hand close; Swing upwards on man; Hands close
- TagsWoman; politician; senator (justice); file; man; turn; shooting order; press conference (PK); prosecutor general; question of guilt; main accusation; arrest warrant; special care; criminal lawyer; Wandlitz settlement; damage amount; investigation; pre-trial detention; file material; file review; file size; prison question; government crime; turn; German Democratic Republic (GDR); Federal Republic of Germany (FRG); GDR injustice; investigation; investigation; investigative proceedings; processing; GDR regime; responsibility; proceedings; suspicion; evidence; criminal liability; press; journalist; Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED); investigative work; working group; breach of trust; October
- Decade1990
- Production Year1990
- Release date
- Genre
- Country of Production
- Actors
- PersonalitiesJutta Limbach, Christoph Schaefgen
- Director
- Producer
- CameraM. Thoess
- Original Clip IdentifierQ6UJ9A00AIRN
EN (US)