Modrow guilty of vote-rigging

The man who was known as the 'East German Gorbachev', and who in 1990 led East Germany into its first and last free elections, was found guilty of having falsified election results, in 1989, writes Steve Crawshaw in Bonn. He was let off with a judge's warning and the threat of a pounds 10,000 fine, should he

re-offend.

The trial of Hans Modrow, who became East German prime minister after the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, had threatened to turn into a black political farce. Mr Modrow was seen, in early 1989, as almost a dissident within the East German party leadership - which, at that time, was fiercely opposed to reform. Mr Modrow, then party leader in Dresden, was one of the few senior Communists who enjoyed any popular respect.