German court gives ex‑RAF member 13‑year term for robberies

A German court has sentenced a former member of the Red Army Faction militant group to 13 years in prison for a series of armed robberies committed while she was a fugitive for more than three decades. Daniela Klette, 67, was found guilty on Wednesday of multiple counts of aggravated robbery, extortion, and weapons violations for crimes that took place between 1999 and 2016.

The regional court in Verden, Lower Saxony, determined that Klette carried out the robberies alongside two other former members of the group, Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, who remain at large. The trio targeted supermarkets and armored cash transport vehicles across northern and western Germany, netting approximately 2.4 million euros to finance their lives in hiding. Prosecutors said the crimes were planned meticulously and executed with a division of labor.

Klette was arrested in her Berlin apartment in February 2024 after evading authorities for over 30 years. She had been living under an assumed name in the city's Kreuzberg district. During the arrest, police reported finding a Kalashnikov assault rifle, ammunition, a replica rocket-propelled grenade, wigs, false identification documents, gold,...