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Daniela Klette (mug photo)

Photo: LKA Lower Saxony

The former left-wing terrorist Daniela Klette has been arrested in Berlin.

The Verden public prosecutor's office confirmed this to SPIEGEL.

She didn't offer any resistance.

She was publicly searched for, as were the other so-called RAF pensioners Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg.

The “Bild” newspaper first reported on the arrest.

According to SPIEGEL information, Klette was identified through fingerprints and apparently used an Italian passport.

Investigators from Lower Saxony arrested them on Monday evening in an apartment building in Kreuzberg.

The Berlin police supported the operation.

Ammunition was found in the apartment.

“No forced entry” was gained into the apartment

According to SPIEGEL information, investigators from Lower Saxony had asked the Berlin police to clarify an address.

The investigators apparently did not see a particularly dangerous situation: it was uniformed police officers from the responsible police section in Berlin who then drove to the apartment - and not a SEK team.

According to security circles, the officers did not gain “forcible entry” into the apartment.

Apparently they rang the bell and landed a direct hit.

The person encountered was the wanted ex-RAF terrorist.

The circumstances of the arrest indicate that the investigators initially did not consider the tip to the Kreuzberg address to be particularly valuable, but rather processed it routinely.

In the meantime, Klette was brought before the judge in Verden, who ordered pre-trial detention.

The trio had been in hiding for more than 30 years.

The three former left-wing terrorists are accused of attempted murder, and numerous cases also involve robbery.

The RAF is responsible for 33 murders from the 1970s to the early 1990s.

In 1977 she killed Federal Prosecutor General Siegfried Buback.

Twelve years later, the then Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen died in an explosive attack.

The terrorist group officially disbanded in 1998 and was no longer active.

Investigators are convinced that Staub, Klette and Garweg started a series of robberies on supermarkets and money transporters in 1999 in order to secure their livelihood underground.

At the beginning of February, the investigative authorities in Lower Saxony launched a public search for the third time after 2016 and 2020 in order to catch the so-called RAF pensioners.

The responsible public prosecutor's office in Verden announced at the time that the reason for the renewed action was "further investigative approaches" that had arisen from "investigations of the last few months."

The Verden district court issued arrest warrants against all three.

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