Daniela Klette, a 67-year-old former fugitive linked to Germany’s Red Army Faction, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by a court in Verden after being convicted of multiple armed robberies committed from 1999 to 2016. The ruling marks a major development in one of Germany’s longest-running post-militancy manhunts.
What Happened
The Lower Saxony court found Klette guilty of aggravated robbery, firearms violations and related offences tied to a series of raids on supermarkets and armored cash vehicles across northern and western Germany. The crimes stretched over 17 years and were carried out alongside two other former RAF members, Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, who remain at large. Her defense team had asked for a full acquittal, arguing she was not proven to have directly participated in the robberies.
Judges focused on eight incidents, beginning in Duisburg in July 1999, when masked attackers struck a cash transport vehicle, threatened guards with firearms and a grenade launcher, and escaped with substantial sums. The final robbery examined in court occurred in June 2016 near Braunschweig, where nearly €1.4 million was stolen from an armored van. During the verdict, supporters in the courtroom shouted slogans in her favor and protested the conviction.
Klette had evaded capture for more than three decades before police arrested her in February 2024 in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, where she had reportedly lived for years under an alias and carried a foreign passport. Authorities said she made little effort to alter her appearance. Investigators discovered weapons, ammunition, wigs, counterfeit identification documents, cash amounting to €240,000 and valuables including gold during searches linked to her arrest.
Impact & Consequences
The sentence closes one legal chapter but underscores unresolved questions about the legacy of violent far-left militancy in Germany. For domestic security agencies, the case highlights how former underground networks can remain operational long after an organization formally disbands, shifting from ideological attacks to criminal financing. The long period between the final robbery and arrest also raises concerns about how fugitives can blend into urban life despite decades-old warrants.
The verdict is also likely to intensify pressure on law enforcement to locate Staub and Garweg, now among the last prominent fugitives connected to the RAF’s later phase. Counter-extremism observers have warned that Klette’s support base in parts of Berlin’s radical-left milieu may complicate public messaging around accountability. At the same time, the conviction may reassure victims and the wider public that historical violent crime can still be prosecuted even after prolonged evasion.
Background & Context
The Red Army Faction, often referred to as the Baader-Meinhof group, emerged in West Germany in the early 1970s and became synonymous with bombings, assassinations and kidnappings. Across its different generations, the group was responsible for 34 deaths between 1970 and 1991. Some of its most notorious actions occurred in 1977, including the killing of a federal prosecutor and the abduction and murder of industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer.
Although RAF structures were eventually dismantled and the organization formally disbanded, prosecutors long maintained that some former members continued criminal activity to finance life in hiding. Klette was alleged to have belonged to the third generation of the RAF. While many terrorism-era allegations are now beyond limitation periods, federal prosecutors have separately accused her of complicity in three attacks from 1990 to 1993, including a failed bombing near a Deutsche Bank site, a shooting at the US Embassy in Bonn and a prison bombing.
International Response
The case has drawn attention beyond Germany because it intersects with broader European debates over how democracies address unresolved political violence from the late Cold War period. Security experts have pointed to the conviction as evidence that long-dormant extremist cases can still produce major judicial outcomes when investigators combine archival intelligence with modern investigative methods, including digital image analysis.
Hans-Jakob Schindler, head of the Counter Extremism Project in Berlin, said Klette had become a symbolic figure for parts of the extreme left and suggested the two remaining fugitives likely learned to avoid digital exposure. While no major foreign government statement has been issued, the case has been closely watched by transatlantic security circles due to the historical allegation involving gunfire at the US mission in Bonn.
What to Expect Next
Klette now begins serving her 13-year sentence, but additional legal proceedings remain possible. Authorities in Frankfurt must decide whether to open a separate trial over federal accusations tied to early-1990s RAF attacks. Investigators are also continuing efforts to track Staub and Garweg, with officials acknowledging they could still be inside Germany or living abroad under false identities.
