- WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Former East German spy chief Markus Wolf says
a Swiss Guard commander slain at the Vatican once served an East German
spy, a Polish newspaper reported Saturday.
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- The Vatican dismissed the allegation
about Alois Estermann as not worthy of consideration. It responded the
same earlier in the week when a Berlin tabloid reported without sources
that the slain commander had fed secrets to East Germany's Stasi spy agency.
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- The Polish tabloid Super Express said
Wolf boasted in an interview that Estermann had "unremitting access
to the Holy Father, and so did we."
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- Estermann and his wife were fatally shot
Monday in their Vatican apartment by a disgruntled Swiss Guard who then
killed himself, according to the Vatican.
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- Wolf was quoted as saying that the Stasi
recruited Estermann in 1979 while he was applying for a job with the Swiss
Guard.
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- "When the acceptance came from the
Vatican, his value to us grew incomparably," Wolf said. "We were
very proud when in 1979 we managed to get Estermann as our agent."
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- Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls
said Saturday that the spy allegation was "foolishness," the
Italian news agency ANSA reported.
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- The Super Express report did not say
what information Estermann may have obtained for the Stasi or what the
East German government did with it.
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- The newspaper said Wolf refused to discuss
whether Estermann had received compensation.
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- Wolf did not immediately respond to calls
placed to his Berlin residence by The Associated Press on Saturday.
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- Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,
or redistributed.
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