Gazeta Lodz - German far-left militant jailed for 13 years for robberies

Daniela Klette, 67, is a former member of the Baader-Meinhof gang, a radical anti-capitalist group that carried out killings, bombings and kidnappings mainly in the 1970s and 1980s.

Klette was arrested in her Berlin apartment in February 2024 after evading the authorities for more than 30 years.

She was found guilty on Wednesday of taking part in a spate of robberies alongside two male gang members to finance their lives on the run after the group, also known as the Red Army Faction (RAF), disbanded in 1998.

In a trial held under tight security, she was found guilty of six counts of "particularly serious robbery", as well as other charges including extortion and arms violations.

The robbers got away with a total of 2.4 million euros ($2.8 million), according to prosecutors.

Klette was accused of having been the getaway driver in several heists and of carrying a "realistic looking" dummy bazooka in robberies where the men carried assault rifles.

Prosecutors also accuse Klette of three politically motivated attacks in the 1990s, while the gang was still active, but those charges are being dealt with in separate proceedings.

The Baader-Meinhof gang -- named after two of its early leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof -- emerged out of the radical fringe of the 1960s and 70s student protest movement.

The group took up arms against what they saw as US imperialism and a "fascist" German state still riddled with former Nazis.

A number of sympathisers were in the court's public gallery Wednesday, cheering on Klette and shouting "Free Daniela!", with at least one woman led away by security personnel, an AFP journalist reported.

G.Malecki--GL