Erich Mielke demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel." On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Erich Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with
Erich Honecker in the event of attempts to break through the border, and the comrades who have successfully used their firearms are to be commended.", as quoted in Hans-Hermann Hertle's book from the same citation. Honecker was surely responsible for the deaths of many of the 1,100 during his long reign, as can be evidenced from his order that "firearms are to be ruthlessly used" to prevent border crossings. The charges were approved by the Berlin District Court on 19 October 1992 at the opening of the trial. On the same day, it was decided that the hearing of 56 charges would