German Prosecutor to Lose Job Over Controversial Killing

Federal prosecutor Alexander von Stahl will be dismissed in connection with the controversial shooting of a suspected urban guerrilla, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry said it had asked President Richard von Weizsaecker to remove Von Stahl because his office could be damaged by persistent criticism of the federal prosecutor.

Critics have called for Von Stahl to quit over the June 27 shooting, which brought about the resignation of Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters on Sunday.

The announcement of Von Stahl’s imminent dismissal came after police said suspected Red Army Faction guerrilla Wolfgang Grams was shot at point-blank range as they tried to arrest him at a rail station in Bad Kleinen.

But police shrouded Grams’ death in fresh mystery by saying the lethal weapon was not a police gun. Authorities have given contradictory accounts of the gunfight in which Grams and a policeman died. Two witnesses have told news media they saw a policeman in the elite GSG-9 anti-terrorist unit shoot Grams point-blank in the head.