On 13 July 1956, the Supreme Court of East Germany (GDR) formally overturned its 1955 conviction of Paul Merker, acquitted him, and ordered that the state bear the costs of the proceedings.The 1955 judgment had relied heavily on alleged links between Merker and individuals convicted in the Czech Slánský trial, including Rudolf Slánský and Otto Katz. The court had treated materials from those proceedings as important evidence of a conspiracy. By 1956, however, the political reassessment that followed the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party cast serious doubt on the reliability of those earlier show-trial materials. The Supreme Court concluded that the evidence on which the 1955 conviction had largely rested could no longer be considered sufficient.