19/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - German national Klaus Bourquain cannot be sentenced a second time for the murder of a fellow soldier in 1961, the Court of Justice of the European Communities has ruled (case C-297/07). Bourquain shot and killed one Erich Deisler, who was trying to prevent him from deserting from the French Foreign Legion in Algeria. Condemned to death in absentia, Bourquain took refuge in the German Democratic Republic, where he became an author of children's books. Bourquain was taken to the Landgericht Regenburg (the Ratisbonne regional court) by the public prosecutor in 2002 for the same crime. In response to questions from the Landgericht Regenburg, the European Court of Justice ruled that the ne bis in idem principle applied in this case - that is to say, even if the sanction was never applicable or applied, the person cannot be tried a second time for the same crime. This would be an infringement of the right to free movement in the Schengen Area. Apart from condemned man being in the German Democratic Republic, with which there was no extradition treaty, the sentence could not be carried out after the French authorities, in 1968, granted an amnesty for crimes committed during the Algerian War. (C.D./transl.rt)