GERMANY: Former Red Army Faction guerilla Christian Klar wins release from prison

Record ID: 1504122

  • Title: GERMANY: Former Red Army Faction guerilla Christian Klar wins release from prison
  • Date: 25th November 2008
  • Summary: (EU) KARLSRUHE, GERMANY (FILE - APRIL 13, 1977) (REUTERS) CHURCH WHERE BUBACK'S FUNERAL WAS HELD INSIDE CHURCH SHOWING COFFINS OF BUBACK AND OTHER VICTIMS CLOSE UP OF COFFIN COVERED IN GERMAN FLAG
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2008 10:58
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA3YZ9J9O72BVT6VKXZPG7LQN4
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Former member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) is released from prison after serving 26 years of a life sentence.
    Christian Klar, a former member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) who has spent the past 26 years in prison for killings that shook Germany in the 1970s, will be released on parole, a court ruled on Monday (November 24).
    Klar was convicted in 1985 of involvement in 20 murders and attempted murders, including the killings of senior German industry figures and public officials.
    The 56-year-old will be released on parole in January after serving the minimum term for a life sentence, the court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart said.
    "In agreement with experts and the prison, the senate has no reason to believe that the convicted poses a continued danger to society," Josefine Koeblitz, a spokesperson for the court said.
    Klar's parole time will last five years.
    The RAF, also known as the "Baader-Meinhof Gang" after founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, was a left-wing guerrilla group which grew out of student protests and anti-Vietnam War movements in 1960s West Germany.
    Its members launched violent attacks to combat "U.S. imperialism" and what they said was a morally corrupt society that had failed to deal with its Nazi past.
    The group is believed to have killed 34 people between 1970 and 1991, before disbanding 10 years ago.
    Klar's case fanned a heated debate last year when President Horst Koehler considered a request to pardon him.
    At the time, some politicians said the killer had done his time and no longer posed a threat to society. Others argued that Klar had never shown regret for his actions or offered details on the killings and deserved no pardon.
    Klar has been in prison since 1982 and was convicted in 1985 of nine murders and 11 counts of attempted murder.
    Among the murders he was convicted of being involved in were those of federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and Juergen Ponto, the head of Dresdner Bank, both killed in attacks leading up to the bloody "German Autumn" of 1977.
    The RAF's most public victim was Hanns Martin Schleyer, a former Nazi party member who became president of West Germany's employers' association in the 1970s and an object of ridicule for the left, which denounced him as a caricature of the "arch-capitalist pig".
    The RAF held Schleyer hostage for over a month as it demanded the release of jailed comrades at Stuttgart's Stammheim prison. He was murdered in a forest in France.
    The RAF has sparked both horror and fascination in Germany and inspired dozens of books and documentaries.
    This year's film "The Baader Meinhof Complex" proved a box office hit in Germany and has been picked as an entry for best foreign language film at the 2009 Academy Awards.
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