German far-left militant jailed for 13 years for robberies

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BERLIN: A German court on Wednesday sentenced former far-left militant Daniela Klette to 13 years in prison for a series of armed robberies carried out while evading capture for three decades.

Klette, 67, was a member of the radical anti-capitalist Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang.

A high-security court found Klette guilty of six counts of particularly serious robbery, extortion, and arms violations. Prosecutors proved that between 1999 and 2016, Klette and two fugitive accomplices raided supermarkets and cash transporters to steal €2.4 million to finance their lives underground. Klette acted as the getaway driver and brandished weapons during the heists.

The verdict sparked brief unrest in the gallery as left-wing sympathizers chanted ‘Free Daniela!’. While this ruling concludes the robbery trial, Klette still faces separate federal terrorism charges stemming from RAF bombings and embassy attacks in the early 1990s.