Red Army Faction militant Daniela Klette arrested in Germany after decades on the run

Klette was part of the Baader-Meinhof gang, a far-left group behind several bombings, kidnappings and killings that traumatised Germany in the 1970s and 1980s

The only woman tagged as ‘dangerous’ on Europol’s most-wanted list, Klette was arrested for attempted murder and a series of robberies

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An officer of the German Federal Criminal Police Office leaves a building where Red Army Faction member Daniela Klette is thought to have been arrested on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:52am, 28 Feb 2024

German police have arrested a fugitive member of Germany’s notorious far-left militant group the Baader-Meinhof gang who had been on the run for more than 30 years, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Daniela Klette, 65, was part of a long-sought trio from the radical anti-capitalist group also known as the Red Army Faction (RAF), which carried out several bombings, kidnappings and killings that traumatised Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since the RAF disbanded in 1998, Klette and fellow gang members Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg are believed to have been financing their lives on the run through robberies of money transporters and supermarket cash heists.

Klette, the only woman tagged as “dangerous” on Europol’s most-wanted list, was arrested on Monday in the German capital on suspicion of attempted murder and various serious robberies between 1999 and 2016, a spokesman for prosecutors in Verden said.

An undated photo shows a person believed to be Daniela Klette, a former members of the Red Army Faction. Photo: State Office of Criminal Investigations Lower Saxony via AFP

The suspect showed no resistance as she was detained at an apartment in the city’s Kreuzberg district after being identified via fingerprints, said Hanover police chief Friedo de Vries.