The main defendant in the trial in Cologne is 39-year-old Anatoliy B., who holds dual Ukrainian-German citizenship. A mathematician by training, who had recently been engaged in completely different matters, is accused by the Cologne prosecutor's office of violating the foreigners act, document forgery, and establishing a criminal organization with the aim of illegally smuggling people across the border. Investigators claim that he helped several thousand Ukrainian and Moldovan illegal migrants to get to the West; they were smuggled to European Union countries between the beginning of 2001 and May 2002. These people obtained German tourist visas by deceptive means, with which they then crossed the border "legally". In the Schengen Agreement countries, men worked illegally in construction, and women in bars or even brothels.
The scheme for smuggling illegal migrants looked roughly like this. In Germany, Anatoliy B., with the help of a network he had created, obtained falsified invitations. Homeless or unemployed people agreed to sign them for a small monetary reward — on average 50 German marks. Thus, about 200 people worked for him. In addition, Anatoliy B. forged company stamps and letterheads of companies where the people who signed the invitations supposedly worked. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, foreigners authorities in German cities introduced verification of the inviting parties' solvency. However, here too, the mathematician from Ukraine found a way out. He used special insurance policies which, by order of the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry, allowed German embassies to accept them instead of the inviting party's obligation to support their guests. Such insurance policies were issued by the Baden-Württemberg company Reiseschutz AG (the head of that company is now also under investigation in this case).
Later, German border police officers noticed a huge number of Ukrainian "tourists" with similar documents. A more thorough check revealed that they were actually illegal migrants. The ball began to unravel. According to the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, during the investigation information emerged about the possible involvement of German Foreign Ministry employees in this case. However, the presiding judge, Ulrich Höppner, has so far been unable to ascertain the details and verify the veracity of such information.
"The court has now summoned three witnesses, namely employees of the German Foreign Ministry who currently work at the embassy in Kyiv," says court spokesman Hans-Georg Shypanskyi. "They are employed there in the consular department. According to German law, before giving testimony that directly concerns the work of officials, civil servants must first obtain permission from their leadership. In this case, the leadership is located in the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin. So far, such permission has not been granted to the embassy employees."
In response to a request from Deutsche Welle, a ministry representative explained that permission was not being granted for the safety of witnesses, as they had already received threats by phone. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in this regard quoted Judge Ulrich Höppner, who directly stated that "the Foreign Ministry is torpedoing this case" because it could reveal a number of abuses that would cast a shadow on the entire institution. Court spokesman Hans-Georg Shypanskyi, however, did not comment on the judge's statement, but reported: "The presiding judge now intends to appeal once again to the Foreign Ministry with a request to nevertheless grant permission to the embassy staff. If such permission is not granted, then these witnesses, of course, will not be able to testify in court."
According to Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the presiding judge has no intention of waiting long and is even ready to go as far as the Federal Chancellor. How long the trial will last, no one is yet willing to predict. According to Hans-Georg Shypanskyi, the defendants face imprisonment from six months to ten years.