Ex-Stasi agent convicted of libel

BERLIN, June 27 (UPI) -- A Berlin court convicted a former member of the Stasi secret police of libeling the head of a museum devoted to the defunct East German secret police.

The ruling this week held that Wolfgang Schmidt went beyond the bounds of free speech last year when he wrote in an open letter describing director Hubertus Knabe as an "inciter."

The court also fined Schmidt for knowingly spreading a false claim, Deutsche Welle said Wednesday.

Schmidt is the spokesman for an association of self-proclaimed Stasi insiders. Knabe runs a museum dedicated to victims of the Stasi during the Cold War.