Former RAF Member Jailed for 13 Years Over Armed Robberies

A German court has sentenced former Red Army Faction (RAF) member Daniela Klette to 13 years in prison for a series of armed robberies committed during her decades on the run.

According to the DPA news agency, the case attracted major public attention in Germany because Klette managed to live undetected under a false identity in Berlin for years.

The 67-year-old was arrested in February 2024 in an apartment in the Kreuzberg district, where she reportedly lived an inconspicuous life and even attended capoeira classes. She had been a fugitive since the RAF formally dissolved in 1998.

The RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof group, was one of West Germany’s most notorious far-left terrorist organizations.

Klette was convicted on charges including attempted murder, illegal weapons possession and multiple armed robberies. Prosecutors said she, together with former RAF members Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, carried out raids on cash transport vehicles and supermarkets between 1999 and 2016 to finance life underground.

Authorities say the trio stole more than €2m in total.

Garweg and Staub remain on the run. Investigators believe Klette managed to warn one of them by text message following her arrest.

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