Red Army Faction member Klette faces new charges

Prosecutors have filed a raft of new charges against former Red Army Faction member Daniela Klette.

The latest allegations relate to a string of serious attacks in the early 1990s.

Former Red Army Faction member Daniela Klette is facing new charges, with Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office accusing her of multiple serious crimes linked to past attacks.

The charges predate a series of robberies between 1999 and 2016, allegedly carried out to finance decades of life underground, for which Kette has already been indicted.

What are the latest allegations?

The Federal Prosecutor's Office said it has charged the 67-year-old with attempted murder, involvement in explosive attacks, kidnapping for extortion, and aggravated robbery, with a court in Frankfurt to decide whether and when a trial will begin.

Prosecutors allege Klette was part of the so-called third generation of the Red Army Faction and took part in several attacks between 1990 and 1993.

These include an attempted bombing of a Deutsche Bank building in Eschborn in 1990, which failed to detonate, and a 1991 shooting attack on the US Embassy in Bonn involving at least 250 rounds.

At least 57 bullets struck the embassy.

Klette is also accused of involvement in a 1993 bombing of a newly built prison in Weiterstadt that caused an estimated €73 million in damages.

Members of the terror group allegedly climbed over the prison wall, overpowered and kidnapped the guards, setting off explosive devices inside the facility, which did not yet house prisoners.

Klette had disappeared from public view by 1990 at the latest.

Outwardly, she apparently led an inconspicuous life.

Authorities said she later lived under a false identity in Berlin for decades, while her alleged accomplices Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg remain at large.

Klette has been on trial at the Verden District Court since early March 2025 over the robberies.

The public prosecutor's office in Verden alleges that Klette, Staub and Garweg held up and robbed cash-in-transit vehicles and cash offices in the states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein from 1999 to 2016 to finance their lives in hiding.

News that law enforcement had arrested her in Berlin-Kreuzberg on February 26, 2024, caused considerable surprise.

Neighbors knew Klette as "Claudia" and described her as a friendly, gray-haired tutor.

In her apartment, investigators found, among other things, pistols, ammunition, and even military-grade weapons.

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