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Uniformed police officers stand in front of the nondescript apartment building in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The entrance to the seven-storey building on Sebastianstrasse near the former border between West and East Berlin was closed on Tuesday. Forensic investigators are on scene.
Police officers carry larger boxes into the house, apparently to remove items. Numerous camera crews follow the scene. On Monday evening, former Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorist Daniela Klette was arrested here after more than thirty years of manhunt. The 65-year-old is in custody for several robberies, as the Public Prosecution Service of Verden and the Criminal Investigation Department of the state of Lower Saxony announced on Tuesday in Hannover.
Lived under a false identity
According to the Hanover State Criminal Investigation Department (LKA), Klette, who was wanted as a terrorist, lived in the Berlin apartment under a false identity.
According to a neighbor, the former RAF terrorist lived under the first name Claudia. To earn money, she would have given private lessons in mathematics, the middle-aged neighbor said on Tuesday in front of the nondescript apartment building. It is said that she lived there on the 5th floor for about 20 years. He often spoke to Klette, who used a different last name. She gave him cookies at Christmas. But Klette only maintained superficial contacts with the neighborhood.
“She always said hello and was actually quite nice,” a local youth said on Tuesday. “I just saw her alone with her dog and her bike.” She was a little scared of the 65-year-old’s big dog. She looks very friendly, with her gray hair in a ponytail. Several residents say Klette was never accompanied. She also had a Facebook profile under the name Claudia, where she posted photos of herself with friends from her Capoeira (Brazilian battle dance) group.
Magazines in the apartment
LKA president Friedo de Vries said she did not oppose her arrest. During the search, investigators found, among other things, gun magazines and cartridges. A weapon has not yet been found.
The arrest by target investigators was preceded by years of investigative work led by the public prosecutor’s office in Verden (Lower Saxony). She accuses the suspect of “including several thefts and attempted murders, which she allegedly committed together with alleged accomplices Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg,” the LKA said in the statement. The search for 69-year-old Staub and 55-year-old Garweg continues.
Arrest again in Berlin
However, shortly after Klette’s arrest, investigators arrested another person in Berlin. It concerns a man in the ‘desired age group’, according to LKA chairman de Vries. The identity of the arrested person is still being clarified. It is not certain whether his ID is real.
The Public Prosecution Service of Verden and the Criminal Investigation Department of the state of Lower Saxony have been looking for the trio Burdock, Staub and Garweg for decades. They are classified as part of the so-called third RAF generation.
Brought to Bremen by helicopter
Klette is now in custody. According to the LKA, she was flown by helicopter to Bremen on Tuesday and from there taken to the Verden court. A judge issued arrest warrants for the 65-year-old. At the request of the Verden Public Prosecutor’s Office, a search warrant was also issued for the apartment.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) also sees the arrest of the former RAF terrorist as an important signal to the victims of the actions of the Red Army Faction. “This successful search is the result of decades of tireless research work. The rule of law has shown its persistence and staying power. No one should feel safe underground,” Faeser said in a statement from her ministry.
“The arrest shows that the perseverance of the investigating authorities is paying off,” said Berlin judge-senator Felor Badenberg (independent). “It was crucial to maintain the pressure of prosecution to protect the population from further serious acts.”
RAF expert Butz Peters hopes for far-reaching clarification
According to information from the DPA, Klette is suspected of being involved in a gun attack on the US embassy in Bonn in 1991. It is also suspected that she was involved in an explosive attack on the Weiterstadt prison (Hesse) in 1993. Evidence shows that she was also at the crime scene during the 1993 anti-terrorist operation in Bad Kleinen, Mecklenburg. Police officer Michael Newrzella and RAF man Wolfgang Grams were killed in the action. Former RAF terrorist Birgit Hogefeld was arrested.
After Klette’s arrest, RAF expert Butz Peters hopes for an in-depth investigation into the crimes of the third generation of the RAF. “Now there is an opportunity to shed light on the crimes of the RAF’s third generation,” Peters told the editorial network Germany (RND). He expects that the 65-year-old’s investigators will now “make the clemency program palatable”, said Peters, who works as a lawyer and has written several books about the RAF. “Then she has to decide.”
Robberies instead of politically motivated acts
Representatives of the third generation of the RAF are said to have murdered the then head of the Deutsche Bank, Alfred Herrhausen, and the head of Treuhand, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder. However, the perpetrator and motive are still unknown to this day. Rohwedder was shot dead behind his desk in his home in Düsseldorf on April 1, 1991. The RAF command claimed responsibility for the crime. Rohwedder was attacked from an allotment and more than 60 meters away. It was the last assassination attempt attributed to the RAF.
Authorities accuse Garweg, Staub and Klette of attempted murder and a series of serious robberies between 1999 and 2016. The crime scene was therefore in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The Public Prosecution Service assumes that the attacks were not politically motivated. The suspects are said to have committed the crimes to obtain money.
Many clues after a search in “File number XY… unsolved”
Most recently, on February 14, the Verden Public Prosecutor’s Office requested information about former RAF terrorists in the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY… unresolved”. According to moderator Rudi Cerne, the reactions were great. There were more than 250 tips, the LKA Lower Saxony said on Tuesday. The manhunt was discussed again and again in the program. However, Klette’s arrest was not due to the search in the program.
After the most recent call, numerous tips came from the public. In Wuppertal on February 18, the main station was cordoned off over a wide area and heavily armed special police units removed a man from a train because an eyewitness mistook him for a wanted ex-RAF terrorist. The suspicion that it was Ernst-Volker Staub was not confirmed. (SDA/neo)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
