Germany remands Baader-Meinhof suspect over 1990s attacks / Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL - AFP/File
Germany remands Baader-Meinhof suspect over 1990s attacks
A former member of the radical anti-capitalist Baader-Meinhof gang arrested in Berlin last week after decades on the run was remanded in custody on Thursday over three violent attacks in the 1990s.
Police swooped on 65-year-old Daniela Klette, one of Europe's most-wanted fugitives, at an apartment in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on February 26.
The former member of the group also known as the Red Army Faction (RAF), which carried out bombings, kidnappings and killings starting in the 1970s, had apparently been living undercover in the bohemian neighbourhood for 20 years.
Klette was formally arrested -- the first stage towards being charged -- in Karlsruhe on Thursday over three attacks, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
In February 1990, she allegedly played a role in an attempted assault on a Deutsche Bank building in Eschborn, near Frankfurt.
Gang members parked a car filled with 45 kilogrammes (99 pounds) of explosives outside the building but the detonator failed to go off, prosecutors said.
Klette is also believed to have been involved in an RAF attack on the US embassy in Bonn, the German capital at the time, in 1991.
- 'Third generation' -
The third accusation relates to a 1993 explosives attack against a prison still under construction in Germany's Hesse state.
Gang members scaled the prison wall, overpowered security guards and removed them from the grounds in a van before detonating several explosives inside.
The Baader-Meinhof gang, named after early leaders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, took up arms against what it saw as US imperialism and a "fascist" German state that was still riddled with former Nazis.
Klette was part of a trio from the so-called "third generation" of the group active in the 1980s and 1990s, alongside Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, who remain on the run.
After the gang disbanded in 1998, the trio are believed to have financed their lives with robberies.
Klette's arrest last week was related to her suspected involvement in an attempted murder and various robberies between 1999 and 2016.
Those accusations are being dealt with by regional prosecutors, while the 1990s allegations come under the remit of federal authorities.
Klette was the only woman listed as "dangerous" on Europol's most-wanted list.
Lawmaker Daniela Behrens described the arrest as a "milestone in German criminal history".
- Life in hiding -
Klette had been living in a studio apartment, according to German media reports, apparently using a fake Italian passport and going by the name of Claudia Ivone.
She is said to have been active in a capoeira group and worked as a private mathematics tutor.
Klette had no bank account and probably paid her rent in cash, possibly for several months or years at a time, according to Der Spiegel magazine.
Police searching the apartment last week found large sums of cash, explosives and a Kalashnikov assault rifle, the magazine said.
Klette showed no resistance when she was arrested and is even said to have appeared relieved, according to Der Spiegel.
Police still searching for Staub, 69, and Garweg, 55, have raided several premises in Berlin over the past week.
On Sunday, they seized a trailer that they said had probably been Garweg's home.
Police said it "could not be ruled out" that Garweg and Klette had maintained "personal and direct" contact.
S.Schuster--MP
