Former Red Army Faction Member Sentenced to 13 Years for Armed Robberies

Berlin. Former member of the German extremist group Red Army Faction (RAF), Daniela Klette, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for armed robbery incidents that occurred between 1999 and 2016.

Klette, 67, was arrested in a flat in Berlin in 2024 after being on the run for more than three decades. A case was then filed against her. Although her lawyers demanded acquittal, the Verden court in the state of Lower Saxony found her guilty of serious robbery, violation of weapons laws, and other offenses.

RAF was also known as the 'Baader-Meinhof Group'. This group was involved in violent activities such as murder, kidnapping, and bomb explosions from the 1970s to the 1990s. The group later disbanded. According to the court, Klette, along with two other former RAF members, Burkhard Garweg and Volker-Staub, robbed supermarkets and armed cash transport vehicles. The two are still at large.

The case primarily focused on eight robbery incidents in northern and western Germany. The first incident occurred in July 1999 in the city of Duisburg, where masked attackers rammed a cash transport vehicle, stopped it, and threatened security guards with guns and grenade launchers. They then looted a large sum of money. The last robbery took place in June 2016 near Braunschweig. In that incident, the robbers looted approximately 1.4 million euros.

Klette was arrested only in February 2024. She was living in Berlin's Kreuzberg district using a fake name and a foreign passport. She was later taken to Lower Saxony, where most of the robberies occurred. The case was filed against her there. According to prosecutors, despite being on the run for decades, Klette had not made much effort to hide her true identity.