An appeals court on Saturday freed East Germany’s elusive spymaster Markus Wolf, who was jailed after refusing to identify a Western informer during another man’s spy trial.
Wolf will remain free pending a decision on his appeal of a Frankfurt state court’s ruling Thursday to jail him, according to the Federal Appeals Court.
The court issued a contempt ruling after Wolf declined to name a Western informer referred to as “Julius” in his 1997 memoirs. He was testifying at the trial of a former West German lawmaker accused of passing secrets to East Germany for more than 20 years.
Wolf admitted knowing the defendant, Gerhard Flaeming, but he said the accused was neither an informer nor an agent–just an interesting conversationalist.
Judge Erich Schieferstein noted that Wolf’s description of “Julius” bore resemblances to 77-year-old Flaeming.
But Wolf said the person he wrote about had already died, and that he would not reveal the real name to protect surviving family members.
Schieferstein ordered him jailed for contempt, and Wolf filed an immediate appeal.
