Weirdly enough, Honecker was unrepentant until his death. They didn't put him on trial in the unified Germany, because the law in Germany is intentionally soft towards the terminally ill.
that's just a myth, there even is a black book on them (in German). one of the many examples is the Magnate Conspiracy, from WP: "Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan (Francesco Cristoforo Frangipani) were ordered to the Emperor's Court. The note said that, as they had ceased their rebellion and had repented soon enough, they would be given mercy from the Emperor if they would plead for it. They were arrested the moment they arrived in Vienna, and put on trial. They were held in Wiener Neustadt and beheaded on April 30, 1671."
> After his fall, Honecker said of Otto von Habsburg in relation to the summer of 1989, "this Habsburg drove the nail into my coffin."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-European_Picnic