Daniela Klette, a former member of Germany’s radical leftist Red Army Faction (RAF), was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a German court on Wednesday for a series of armed robberies committed during 30 years on the run.
The regional court in Verden found Klette guilty of aggravated robbery, gun law violations and other crimes linked to robberies on supermarkets and cash-in-transit vans carried out alongside two other former RAF members who remain at large.
The case garnered nationwide attention when Klette was arrested at her Berlin flat in February 2024, where she had lived for years under a different name.
Klette, 67, had gone into hiding by the time the RAF – also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group from its founding members, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof – disbanded in 1998.
She managed to evade arrest for some 30 years, leading a normal life in Berlin’s trendy Kreuzberg neighbourhood, where she reportedly regularly attended capoeira classes, a type of Afro-Brazilian martial arts dance.
Klette went on trial in March 2025, charged with attempted murder, illegal possession of firearms and aggravated robbery, allegedly committed alongside accomplices Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, two other former RAF members.
Garweg and Staub are still on the run, with Klette believed to have tipped off Garweg by text when she was arrested.
Court does not uphold attempted murder charge
The trio is said to have stolen over €2 million ($2.3 milllion) between 1999 and 2016 to finance their life in hiding, robbing cash-in-transit vans and supermarkets in northern and western Germany.
Investigators uncovered weapons, ammunition, a fake RPG, forged IDs, wigs, gold and €240,000 ($279,000) in cash at Klette’s flat.
Prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison sentence for Klette on charges of attempted murder, aggravated robbery, and violations of gun laws.
However, the court did not consider a 2015 assault on a cash-in-transit van near the northern city of Bremen as attempted murder but as aggravated robbery.
The incident in the town of Suhr saw three masked individuals attempting to break into the van carrying some €1 million. Several shots were fired, with the driver reporting that he had feared for his life. The assailants did not manage to open the van’s doors, and fled the scene without the cash.
The court found Klette guilty of aggravated robbery, attempted aggravated robbery, violations of gun laws, kidnapping for ransom, and aggravated extortion.
When the presiding judge announced the sentence, supporters of the defendant protested the verdict with loud boos and chanted “Freedom for Daniela.” Court officials escorted some of the protesters out of the courtroom.
Klette’s defence team had maintained that the evidence presented in court did not prove that Klette had been involved in the robberies.
Attorney Lukas Theune had called for a suspended sentence, citing the weapons found in his client’s flat which he admitted constituted a violation of the Weapons Act.
In his closing argument, he also called for the arrest warrant against Klette to be revoked.
RAF attacks could result in separate trial
The RAF was a far-left militant group in the former West Germany founded in 1970. It was active until 1998, carrying out a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies and shoot-outs with police.
More than 30 people were killed in Germany in attacks by the RAF.
The proceedings in Verden, near Bremen, only involved suspected offences committed after the RAF disbanded in 1998.
Klette has also been accused of involvement in three RAF attacks between 1990 and 1993, which could result in separate charges, including attempted murder.
Emergency servicemen guard the converted riding facility, a temporary courtroom for the Verden district court, where the verdict in the trial against former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette for armed robbery handed down. (is associated with: «German court convicts ex-RAF member of robbery after decades in hiding») Sina Schuldt/dpa
FILE PHOTO – Defendant Daniela Klette stands in the provisional courtroom of the Verden district court in Verden-Eitze. The former RAF terrorist has been on trial since the end of March for a series of attacks on supermarkets and cash-in-transit vehicles between 1999 and 2016. (is associated with: «German court convicts ex-RAF member of robbery after decades in hiding») Sina Schuldt/dpa
FILE PHOTO – Forensics officers go to the site on Markgrafendamm in the Friedrichshain district as part of the manhunt for former RAF terrorists Staub and Garweg. After the arrest of the suspected ex-RAF terrorist Klette, the police are looking for accomplices. (is associated with: «German court convicts ex-RAF member of robbery after decades in hiding») Britta Pedersen/dpa