A COMMUNIST granny who was part of a far-left terror gang has been put behind bars after more than 30 years on the run.
Daniela Klette, 67, is an ex-member of the German militant group Red Army Faction (RAF) that killed more than 30 people during the 70s and 80s.
Daniela Klette, 67, was sentenced to 13 years behind bars on Wednesday Credit: Reuters
Klette was convicted of a string of armed robberies between 1999 and 2016 Credit: EPA
The 67-year-old had been on the run since the 90s when the gang, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, disbanded.
Klette was arrested in her Berlin apartment in February 2024, where cops found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, explosives and large sums of cash.
She was sentenced to 13 years in jail on Wednesday for a string of armed robberies that spanned almost two decades.
According to prosecutors, she stole a total of 2.4million euros with two male gang members to finance their lives as fugitives.
Klette was the getaway driver in the heists and was also accused of carrying a “realistic looking” dummy bazooka in robberies.
Her accomplices were armed with assault rifles.
In a trial held under tight security, she was found guilty of six counts of “particularly serious robbery” committed between 1999 and 2016.
Other charges included extortion and arms violations.
A police wanted photo shows from left, Burkhard Garweg, Ernst-Volker Wilhelm Staub and Daniela Klette Credit: AP:Associated Press
Klette was on the run from the authorities for more than 30 years Credit: Interpol
The RAF emerged from the radical fringe of the 1960s and 70s student protest movement under leaders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
But soon the group took up arms against what they saw as a “fascist” German state still riddled with former Nazis.
Their campaign of violence is believed to have claimed 34 lives, including police officers, judges, American soldiers and a former Nazi SS officer.
A number of sympathisers cheered their support for Klette from the court’s public gallery on Wednesday.
According to Hans-Jakob Schindler, head of the Counter Extremism Project, she has become “a kind of grandmother heroine for the extreme left in Berlin”.
At least one woman was led away by security personnel.
In separate proceedings before another court, prosecutors accuse Klette of being involved in an RAF plot to blow up the Deutsche Bank in 1990.
She is also said to have strafed the US embassy in Bonn with machine gun fire in 1991.
Klette (R) greets her lawyer Undine Weyers (L) in the courtroom ahead of trial Credit: Getty Who are the RAF and the Bader-Meinhof gang ?
The RAF was German militant that killed more than 30 people during the 70s and 80s.
Also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang – named after early leaders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof – the group emerged in the 1960s.
Born from the radical student movement, the RAF was mostly made up of middle-class youngsters.
But they soon took up arms against what they saw as a “fascist” German state still riddled with former Nazis.
The RAF is believed to have been responsible for 34 deaths as well as kidnappings and bombings.
Their victims are believed to include police officers, judges, American soldiers and a former Nazi SS officer.
Baader was captured with accomplices Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins in a Frankfurt shootout on 1 June 1972.
Baader’s girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin was arrested a week later, and Meinhof was caught in mid-June.
But a second generation of militants took up the fight, carrying out some of the bloodiest attacks in a bid to free their heroes.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 weakened the group and on 20 April 1998, the group announced it would disband.
And she was allegedly part of a team that bombed the Weiterstadt prison near Frankfurt in 1993.
Klette was part of a trio of gang members, Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, as part of the RAF’s “third generation” in the 1980s and 1990s.
Police are still searching for Garweg and Staub, who if still alive would now be 57 and 72 respectively.
Appearing in court last year, Klette vowed to continue the struggle against “capitalism and patriarchy”.
Klette did not explicitly admit to being an RAF member during the trial, and she will not face trial for terrorism allegations against her because of the statute of limitations, according to the BBC.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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