Editing Hitler Diaries (section)

==Arrests and trial==
Once the government announcement appeared on television, Kujau took his wife and mistress to Austria; he introduced the latter to Edith as his cleaner. After he saw a news report a few days later, naming him as the forger, and also hearing that ''Stern'' had paid nine&nbsp;million DMs, he first phoned his lawyer and then the Hamburg State prosecutor, before agreeing to hand himself in at the border between Austria and West Germany the following day. When police raided his house, they found several notebooks identical to those used in the fraud. Kujau continued to use a variation of the story he had told Heidemann—that of obtaining the diaries from the East—but he was bitter that the journalist was still at liberty, and had withheld so much of ''Stern''{{'}}s money from him. After thirteen days, on 26 May, he wrote a full confession, stating that Heidemann knew all along that the diaries were forgeries.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=359–360, 372–374}} Heidemann was arrested that evening.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=377}}

Following a police investigation that lasted over a year, on 21 August 1984 the trial against Heidemann and Kujau opened in Hamburg. Both men were charged with defrauding ''Stern'' of 9.3&nbsp;million DMs.<ref name="Obs: trial opens" /><ref name="Guard: trial opens" />{{efn|At the time the case went to court, 9.3&nbsp;million DMs equated to £2.33&nbsp;million<ref name="Guard: trial ends" /> or $3.7&nbsp;million.<ref name="NYT: Cost" /> £2.33&nbsp;million in 1984 is {{Inflation|UK|2330000|1984|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}, according to calculations based on the [[Consumer Price Index (United Kingdom)|Consumer Price Index]] measure of inflation.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Clark|first1=Gregory|title=The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)|url=https://www.measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/|access-date=22 February 2023|publisher=MeasuringWorth|date=2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401021917/https://www.measuringworth.com/datasets/ukearncpi/|archive-date=1 April 2023}}</ref>}} Despite the seriousness of the charges facing the two men, Hamilton considers that "it also appeared clear that the trial was going to be a farce, a real slapstick affair that would enrage the judge and amuse the entire world."{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|p=153}} The proceedings lasted until July 1985, when both men were sent to prison: four years and eight months for Heidemann, four years and six months for Kujau. In September one of the supporting magistrates overseeing the case was replaced after he fell asleep;<ref name="Times: sleeping judge" /> three days later the court were "amused" to see pictures of [[Idi Amin]]'s underpants, which Heidemann had framed on his wall.<ref name="Guard: Pants" /> At times the case "denigrated into a slanging match" between Kujau and Heidemann.<ref name="Guard: Trial" /> In his summing up Judge Hans-Ulrich Schroeder said that "the negligence of ''Stern'' has persuaded me to soften the sentences against the two main co-conspirators."<ref name="Guard: trial ends" />{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|p=172}} Heidemann was found guilty of stealing 1.7&nbsp;million DMs from ''Stern'', and Kujau was found guilty of receiving 1.5&nbsp;million DMs for his role in the forgeries. Despite the lengthy investigation and trial, at least five&nbsp;million DMs remained unaccounted for.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=381, 384}}