E German guard gets six years

POTSDAM (AP) - A former East German border guard was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man who had given up an attempt to escape to the West in 1965. The sentence was the longest given so far in a series of trials starting in September 1991.

Rolf-Dieter Heinrich, 48, was sentenced for the death of Walter Kittel in October 1965. Kittel, 21, and a friend, Eberhard Krause, 23, were spotted trying to cross the fortified border near Kleinmachnow, south of Berlin. Witnesses said the guards opened fire on the men, who were not initially hit, and then ordered them back into a ditch. Krause was wounded in another burst of gunfire, and Heinrich fired three bursts and killed Kittel.