Germany Arrests 2 More Suspects in Hunt for Red Army Fugitives
Two men were in custody after a police raid in Berlin in connection with the longtime search for three of the militant group’s members, one of whom was caught last week.The German police on Sunday said that they had arrested two more suspects connected to the capture last week of one of the country’s most wanted Red Army Faction fugitives, Daniela Klette.A spokeswoman for the police in the state of Lower Saxony, which is in charge of the case, said the authorities were now investigating whether the two men, who were caught in Berlin, are Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, who were sought in connection with Red Army Faction activities.The Red Army Faction, originally known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, was Germany’s most infamous postwar terrorist group. Ms. Klette, who evaded the police for decades, was wanted in connection with the bombing of a prison in 1993.During their time in hiding, the police say, Ms. Klette, Mr. Staub and Mr. Garweg committed at least 13 violent robberies, netting them about two million euros, or about $2.1 million.Ms. Klette’s arrest last week made national headlines not only because of the criminal group’s sensational past, but also because she had been living practically in plain sight. Under the name Claudia Ivone, Ms. Klette lived in an apartment in the popular Berlin district of Kreuzberg. The now 65-year-old fugitive had been active in a group practicing the Brazilian martial art of capoeira and in a local Afro-Brazilian society, even participating in a popular Berlin street festival and being photographed there.Security experts have raised questions over the effectiveness of the German authorities’ approach to hunting for fugitives, after it emerged that an investigative reporter, assisting a German podcast, was able to easily identify Ms. Klette last year using publicly available facial recognition tools.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
