Cold War agent jailed

Bonn - Protesting his innocence to the last, Karl Wienand, a former Social Democrat politician was sentenced yesterday to two and a half years in jail and fined 1m German marks for passing secrets to East Germany's security service, the Stasi, writes Imre Karacs.

Wienand, 69, was parliamentary whip during the reign of Willy Brandt. Dusseldorf's high court ruled that Wienand had, for over 20 years, kept the Communist regime informed of Bonn's strategy towards the east, in return for some DM1m.

Wienand is appealing against the verdict, claiming his meetings with a Stasi agent who he thought was an East German government official had been above board.