The man who led East Germany during the final weeks of Communist rule, Egon Krenz, has begun a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for ordering the shooting of people who tried to flee to the West.

Mr Krenz, who's sixty-two, arrived at the prison in Berlin a day after the German Constitutional Court refused to hear an appeal against his conviction.

He said he was the victim of political persecution.

Mr Krenz, who will be free to leave prison and go to work during the day, says he'll appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

About a thousand people were shot dead by border guards as they attempted to escape during the forty-one years of East Germany's existence. Hundreds of former guards have been convicted for border killings since German reunification but most have received suspended sentences or parole.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service