Egon Krenz: Responsible for the killings at the Berlin Wall

Former East German Leaders Guilty of Berlin Wall Deaths

Two other former members of the East German leadership, Günther Kleiber and Günther Schabowski, were sentenced to three years in prison each.

A border guard of Mr Krenz's "better Germany" carries away a victim of the shoot-to-kill policy

Mr Krenz arrived at the court house to cries of "murderer" from the waiting crowd. East Germany's last hard-line leader had always maintained that the court had no right to try him. He stood impassively as the presiding judge sentenced him.

Throughout the trial Mr Krenz remained unrepentant, saying that although he regretted the deaths, victims and perpetrators alike had been hostages to the Cold War. He defended East Germany as the better Germany, while insisting that his government's actions were dictated by the Soviet Union.

Memorial for East Germans shot dead at the Berlin Wall

Mr Krenz had taken over as East German leader shortly before the Berlin Wall came down. for much of the 1980s he had been a key member of the Communist leadership, responsible among other things for security matters.

The prosecution had demanded an 11-year prison sentence for Mr Krenz, nine years for Mr Schabowski and seven-and-a-half for Mr Kleiber. It argued that the politicians were morally responsible for the killings because they passed the laws and ran the system that kept the Berlin Wall in place.

Given that over 40 border guards have already been found guilty of shooting to kill and two have been jailed, Mr Krenz and his defence lawyers expected a jail sentence.

The trial of Mr Krenz and his comrades is likely to be the last high-profile trial of leaders of the former East Germany.