At the beginning of June 1992, Dr Karli Coburger was arrested. Dr Coburger was the former head of the Stasi Department VIII, responsible for observation, investigations and arrests. The very next day, the Berliner Kurier came out with the lurid headline: “Boss of Stasi killer team arrested”. Allegedly, Dr Coburger had commanded a contract-murder team consisting of 21 criminals in West Germany who had carried out more than 500 murders at the behest of the Stasi, for which more than two million Deutschmarks had been paid. It’s all very well to start the ball rolling with such dramatic revelations, but they have to be proved in court. And there was no evidence whatsoever, apart from hazy hearsay statements, idle gossip, vague unconfirmed reports and obscure, unsubstantiated rumours. Dr Coburger was acquitted.
Much the same very dubious method was used to accuse Dr Gerhard Neiber, the Deputy Minister for State Security, of various murders supposed to have been committed in the context of an alleged support function for the Red Army Faction in West Germany. He, too, was acquitted due to a complete lack of evidence.