Germany launches trial of former Baader-Meinhof gang member

A former member of the notorious far-left Red Army Faction (RAF), who was apprehended last year after being discovered living quietly in Berlin, is being tried in a German court.

On Tuesday, Daniela Klette, 66, was charged with attempted murder, illegal possession of firearms, and aggravated robbery in a court in northern Germany’s Hanover.

She is accused of carrying out the crimes along with accomplices Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, both of whom were “third generations” of the Baader-Meinhof gang.

The RAF, which was primarily active in the 1970s and 1980s, was responsible for at least 30 deaths. The organization was disbanded by 1998.

The trio is alleged to have allegedly robbed them repeatedly to get money for their lives on the run. They are accused of stealing a total of 2.7 million euros ($2.9m) between 1999 and 2016.

Bazooka

If Staub and Garweg are still alive, they would be 56 and 71, respectively.

Klette is alleged to have primarily performed getaway driving duties. She is also accused of attempted murder after a 2015 robbery and carried a “realistic looking” dummy bazooka during the heists.

The three suspects “proceded in an extremely conspiratorial manner,” according to the trial’s opening prosecutor, who rented cars and apartments under false names and occasionally set fire to vehicles to cover their tracks.

Klette might face life in prison, according to a court-speaker’s spokesman for the German court, according to Reuters news agency.

According to the court, the trial is scheduled to last for about two years, and 12 witnesses will be present.

security concerns

Klette evaded arrest for more than 30 years when, in February of this year, the police raided her Berlin apartment in response to a tip-off from a public informant.

Apparently, she was using Claudia Ivone’s fake Italian passport. An automatic assault rifle, explosives, and significant amounts of cash were discovered in her home by the police.

Due to security concerns, the Higher Regional Court in Celle, near Hanover, is using a locked room for the trial.

As a crowd of about 50 people demonstrated in solidarity, police and judicial officers armed with machine guns and sniffer dogs secured the building.

They played punk music and displayed a banner with the words “Defend revolutionary history – Freedom for Daniela and all political prisoners.”

The armed group, which was founded on the left-wing fringe of the student protest movement of the 1960s, was named after its early leaders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.

The organization mobilized against what it perceived as “fascist” German rule and US imperialism in its early years. It targeted government, business, and judiciary representatives.

The RAF shot and killed industrialist and former SS officer Hanns Martin Schleyer at the height of its notoriety.