German authorities arrested alleged Red Army Faction (RAF) fugitive member Daniela Klette in Berlin on Monday after several years on the run and evading arrest for armed robbery and attempted murder charges, a German public prosecutor’s office shared Tuesday. Klette was arrested in Kreuzberg, a district of Berlin, the country’s capital and largest city. A second suspect was also arrested in Berlin, though their identity has not yet been confirmed. On Wednesday, authorities shared that the detained man is not tied to the group.
Klette is an alleged member of Germany’s notorious far-left RAF militant group, which has described itself as a communist and anti-imperialistic urban guerilla group engaged in armed resistance against what it considers a “fascist” state. Founded by Andreas Baader en Ulrike Meinhof in the 1970s on the back of German student protests against the Vietnam War, members of the RAF have been engaged with or orchestrated a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, robberies and shoot-outs with state police over 30 years.
Klette is in custody on charges related to six armed robberies between 1999 and 2016, allegedly carried out with two other suspected members of the group, Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub. Traces of Klette’s DNA were also found at another crime scene in 1991 after the group launched a gun attack on the US embassy in the west German city of Bonn.
A tip from the public in November 2023 led to Klette’s arrest, said President of the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office, Friedo de Vries. Speaking at a news briefing on Tuesday, de Vries provided details on the arrest. “Late yesterday evening, police succeeded in detaining Daniela Klette in a Berlin apartment,” he said. “She offered no resistance.”
The arrest has been described by officials as a major victory in the war on terror. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the arrest an important signal to the victims of the RAF. “This successful search is the result of decades of tireless investigative work. The constitutional state has shown its perseverance and staying power. Nobody should feel safe underground,” read a statement from the Interior Ministry.
Klette was flown via helicopter to Bremen, the region where she committed the alleged robberies. She is now awaiting trial in custody in Verden. Both Garweg and Volker Staub remain at large, and are currently on both Germany and the EU’s most wanted list.
