In the apartment where Daniela Klette, who had been wanted for many years, was staying, the police found, among other things, grenades. The search for two other former RAF personnel is still ongoing.
Weapons, including a grenade, were found in the Berlin apartment of former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette on Wednesday. This was confirmed in the evening by a spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Department. The Berlin newspaper “Der Tagesspiegel” had already reported the discovery of the weapon. The evacuation of the residential building in the Kreuzberg district had nothing to do with the discovery of the weapon, the LKA spokeswoman in Hanover said.
According to the responsible Lower Saxony Public Prosecutor's Office in Verden, the search also continued for former RAF members Ernst-Volker Staub (69) and Burkhard Garweg (55). However, a man who was also temporarily arrested in Berlin is on the run again. “There is no doubt that he is not one of the two criminals who are still on the run,” the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office in Hanover said on Wednesday.
Man released again
The man was released from police action. LKA president Friedo de Vries explained on Tuesday that the man was in the “desired age group”. The Interior Ministry spokeswoman did not provide any information about the context in which he was detained.
Klette is in custody for several robberies. According to LKA, she lived in an apartment in Berlin under a false identity. According to a neighbor, her name was Cláudia. According to a spokeswoman for the authority, an arrest warrant for Klette obtained years ago by the German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe is still in force. Klette is being investigated for causing an explosive explosion and attempted murder in crimes in the early 1990s.
Berlin Kreuzberg apartment building evacuated due to “dangerous” items
Meanwhile, it emerged that the apartment building in Berlin-Kreuzberg where former RAF terrorist suspect Klette lived was evacuated on Wednesday due to possible danger. All residents had to leave their apartments in the afternoon and then remained on the street.
Initially there was no official reason, but a police forensic investigator said: “Because we found something that is dangerous.” Police forensic scientists also had to leave the house on Sebastianstrasse. After the police removed a grenade at night, another possibly dangerous object was to be removed and other objects examined that night. Berlin police did not say what type of dangerous object it was. She only wrote in the Portal to stay in Kreuzberg for a long time.”
Klette is said to have carried out an explosive attack
Specifically, Klette is accused of having carried out an explosive attack on the Weiterstadt prison, which was under construction, in March 1993, together with the still wanted RAF terrorists Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg. The explosion caused damage to the building worth around 123 million German marks.
Klette is also said to have attempted, with other members of the RAF, to carry out an explosive attack on a Deutsche Bank building in Eschborn in February 1990. The explosive did not detonate because the ignition failed. Furthermore, according to investigators' findings, Klette and members of the RAF fired at least 250 shots at the US embassy in Bad Godesberg in February 1991.
Accused needed money to live underground
The arrest of the targeted investigators was preceded by years of investigative work led by the Verden Public Prosecutor's Office. The prosecution accuses Klette, Garweg and Staub of attempted murder and a series of serious robberies between 1999 and 2016. The crime scenes took place in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The Public Ministry assumes that the attacks were not politically motivated. Instead, the accused are said to have committed the crimes to obtain money for their clandestine life.
Authorities in Lower Saxony initially did not comment on the question of which prison Klette was taken to. A Justice Department spokeswoman cited security considerations. She also declined to comment on whether Klette was in solitary confinement. She also has no information about whether Klette should be taken to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe.
The trio of Klette, Staub and Garweg are attributed to the so-called third generation of the RAF. Journalist and RAF expert Stefan Aust said about this on Tuesday evening in the ZDF “heute-journal” that the second generation tried to free the first from prison. “When that didn't work, there was the third generation, and they did one thing and just committed murder. They just shot people or set traps for them.” (APA/dpa)