© picture alliance / Noah Wedel | Noah Wedel
One of the last fugitive members of the German terror group Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF), has been sentenced to 13 years in prison: 67-year-old Daniela Klette lived in hiding in the heart of Berlin for nearly 30 years.
The court found proven six cases of aggravated armed robberies of supermarkets and cash transports and the charge of weapons possession. Together with two male companions, Daniela Klette looted some 2.7 million euros between 1999 and 2016 in order to finance her existence in hiding.
Klette belonged to the mysterious third generation of the RAF, which carried out attacks in the 1980s and 1990s but always remained strictly underground. After the group disbanded itself in 1998, she went into hiding. For some 20 years she lived in the heart of Berlin, under the false name of Claudia Ivone. In the Kreuzberg neighborhood she was known as a polite neighbor with a big white dog, who took dance classes and went on vacation to Brazil.
Beginning of the end
Her downfall began with social media. A podcast maker and a journalist from research collective Bellingcat identified her in 2024 through facial recognition software, based on photos she herself had posted on Facebook. Upon her arrest, police found weapons, fake IDs, wigs and 240,000 euros in cash.
Her two companions, Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, are still fugitives. Klette's lawyer is likely to appeal: he considers that only the violation of the weapons law is proven. After the verdict, expressions of support rang out from the audience: "Freedom for Daniela!"
Rote Armee Fraktion
The far-left Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) originated in the German student movement in the 1970s and opposed the U.S. war in Vietnam, the postwar influence of former Nazis and consumer society. Between 1970 and 1998, they were in the news with attacks on members of the government, business and security forces in West Germany.
Picture: © picture alliance / Noah Wedel | Noah Wedel