Ex-Red Army Faction member caught after more than 30 years on the run

FILE – 1988 portrait of RAF (Red Army Faction) member Daniela Klette, handed out by German police in 1993.

A former member of the disbanded left-wing militant Red Army Faction group wanted for involvement in several robberies, has been arrested after more than 30 years on the run, German authorities said on Tuesday.

Daniela Klette, 65, was arrested at an apartment in Berlin on Monday afternoon.

According to the investigators, a tip from the public received in November guided them to her, though they refrained from providing further details.

Klette, who had a foreign passport under a different name, put up no resistance, the head of Lower Saxony state’s criminal police office, Friedo de Vries, told reporters.

She was identified with the help of fingerprints. During a subsequent search of her apartment, authorities found two magazines and ammunition compatible with a handgun, although no firearm was discovered, de Vries noted.

Klette is one of three former Red Army Faction members whom police have been seeking for years. She, Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg have been linked to 12 robberies in northern Germany between 1999 and 2016, as well as attempted murder.

Authorities suspect the motive for the robberies was to finance their lives underground rather than anything political.

De Vries said there was a second arrest on Tuesday, but the man’s identity remains unclear.

The Red Army Faction emerged from German student protests against the Vietnam War. The group launched a violent campaign against what members considered U.S. imperialism and capitalist oppression of workers.

The organisation killed 34 people and injured hundreds. It declared itself disbanded in 1998.