There aren't many books I can see, but then 12-year-olds like Daniel are said not to read much any more. A new indictment charging him with kidnapping in three cases has been drawn up by the Federal Prosecutor. Wolf's retrial is to take place in Dusseldorf, probably early next year. Although legal sources say that it is unlikely that he will actually be made to serve a prison term, West German justice officials are causing the 73-year-old ex-spymaster considerable anguish by leaving this a possibility.No doubt monitoring these developments in Munich, Gabriele Gast looks forward to completing her gaol term after which she will return to her tidy flat in Neuried to contemplate her future and come to terms with her past.! Adapted from 'Spymaster', by Leslie Colitt, published by Robson Books at pounds 16.95 on 26 September. Visibly relieved over what amounted to an amnesty, Wolf said that he expected his sentence to be annulled and that the years of uncertainty and slander against him and his former associates would be ended.But it was not to be that simple. It was difficult to imagine that Wolf would land in prison; but his supporters had prepared for that eventuality, issuing a thinly veiled threat to the German authorities.

They hinted that Wolf was privy to acutely embarrassing secrets about prominent West Germans, and that if he told what he knew the entire German establishment might never recover.On the morning of 23 May 1995, Wolf, his face deeply etched from months of worrying, heard the long-awaited ruling from the appeal court: former East German intelligence officers who had spied exclusively from GDR territory could not be prosecuted for their espionage. The Berlin court argued that to prosecute former GDR spies and spymasters, while West German spies and spymasters enjoyed immunity, violated the Constitution's principle of equality before the law. Now, in the new capitalist world, he girded himself to make a living from the ruins of the past. He decided that his fellow Germans were less eager to hear his political revelations than to sample his fabled recipes, which he published in a cookbook with the tongue-in-cheek title Secrets of Russian Cooking.More than two years had passed since the Berlin High Court dismissed the espionage case against Wolf's successor, Werner Grossmann.

For over a year he waited anxiously for a ruling on his appeal against his sentence. He complained about his freedom of movement being restricted to Berlin, and of having to seek permission from the authorities before visiting his weekend dacha in Prenden. I thought about the many victims of the Stasi who had languished for years in dehumanising prisons. Some had not survived long enough to be released.Though free, Wolf was struggling financially: his special pension arrangements had been cancelled and he was left with the basic rate for former Stasi officials, DM802 per month. Outside the courthouse, a crowd of supporters cheered their fallen hero.The final verdict on Wolf still had to be spoken. The pain was still too great.During a break in his trial in the late summer of 1993, we met again in Berlin We went to a restaurant near his apartment for lunch.