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Verdict delivered after decades on the run
A German court sentenced 67-year-old Daniela Klette to 13 years in prison on Wednesday for a series of armed robberies committed between 1999 and 2016. Klette, a former member of the Red Army Faction (RAF), was captured in Berlin last year after evading authorities for over three decades.
Background: The RAF's violent legacy
The RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, was an anti-capitalist militant group active from the early 1970s to the 1990s. It carried out bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations, killing 34 people during its campaign. The group officially disbanded in 1998, but some members remained at large.
Robbery spree and capture
The court in Verden, Lower Saxony, convicted Klette of aggravated robbery, weapons violations, and other charges linked to eight heists across northern and western Germany. Prosecutors alleged she acted alongside two other former RAF members, Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, who remain fugitives.
The first robbery occurred in Duisburg in July 1999, where masked attackers rammed a cash transport van, threatened guards with firearms and a grenade launcher, and escaped with a substantial sum. The final heist, in June 2016 near Braunschweig, netted nearly €1.4 million (£1.2 million).
Life in hiding
Klette was arrested in February 2024 in Berlin's Kreuzberg district after a tip-off. She had lived under the alias "Claudia" on Sebastianstrasse, a quiet street once divided by the Berlin Wall, using a foreign passport. Despite her fugitive status, neighbors described her as friendly and unassuming. One neighbor, Hamza, told the BBC he was stunned to learn of her past after seeing her walking her dog.
Investigators traced her using AI facial recognition software, matching an old wanted poster to recent online images. A search of her flat uncovered weapons, ammunition, a replica rocket-propelled grenade, wigs, false IDs, gold, and €240,000 in cash.
Legal battles and unresolved charges
Klette's defense argued there was no direct evidence linking her to the robberies, claiming her only offense was possession of weapons found in her flat. While her RAF membership is beyond the statute of limitations, federal prosecutors have accused her of involvement in three later attacks: a failed 1990 bombing outside a Deutsche Bank building, a 1991 shooting at the U.S. embassy in Bonn (where 57 bullets struck the building), and a 1993 prison bombing.
A decision on whether she will face trial for these allegations rests with Frankfurt authorities. Hans-Jakob Schindler, head of the Counter Extremism Project, told the BBC that Klette had become a "grandmother heroine" for Berlin's far-left circles, though she never explicitly admitted to RAF membership during the trial.
Supporters and fugitives
Dozens of Klette's supporters disrupted the courtroom, chanting "freedom for Daniela" after the verdict. Meanwhile, Garweg and Staub remain at large. Schindler speculated they could be hiding in Germany or abroad, having learned to avoid online exposure.
The RAF's most infamous crimes included the 1977 assassination of federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and the kidnapping and murder of industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer. Klette is alleged to have been part of the group's third and final generation, which operated into the 1990s.
