[Ppnews] Brigitte Mohnhaupt - Baader Meinhof member to be freed after 24 years

[Political Prisoner News]

Baader Meinhof terrorist to be freed after 24 years in jail
× Brigitte Mohnhaupt is not a security risk, court rules
× Families of gang's victims angry at killer's release
Kate Connolly in Berlin

Tuesday February 13, 2007
The Guardian

Two police photographs of Brigitte Mohnhaupt, who 
has spent 24 years in prison for her involvement 
in nine murders. Photographs: AP/EPA

A former leader of the Baader Meinhof gang that 
terrorized West Germany in the 1970s and 80s is 
to be freed from prison after 24 years following a court ruling yesterday.
Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57, who is serving five life 
sentences plus 15 years for her role in the 
murders of several prominent Germans, including a 
banker, a prosecutor and an industrialist, will 
be freed on five years' probation next month.

In its ruling, made public on its website, the 
Stuttgart state court said: "This is not a 
pardon, rather a decision based on specific legal 
considerations. The decision ... was reached 
based on the determination that no security risk exists."

The decision was condemned by the families of 
Mohnhaupt's victims, particularly because she had shown no remorse.

"I regard this as a perversion of justice," said 
Dirk Schleyer, 54, whose father Hanns Martin 
Schleyer, a former Nazi and head of the 
employers' federation, was held hostage by the 
gang under Mohnhaupt's leadership in 1977 before 
being killed in cold blood in a French forest. 
His body was later found dumped in a car boot.

Mr Schleyer said he feared Mohnhaupt's release 
meant it would never now be possible to establish who shot his father.
The court ruling was also condemned by Konrad 
Freiberg, the head of Germany's police union, 
which lost 10 officers in killings by the gang, 
also known as the Red Army Faction (RAF). "We 
will not forget these murders. A feeling of bitterness remains," he said.

Mohnhaupt was a leader of the "second generation" 
of the RAF. She took over after its founders, 
Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, committed 
suicide in prison. She played a key role in the 
wave of terror in 1977 known as the "German 
autumn", when Germans whom they held responsible 
for pursuing Germany's economic success at the 
expense of dealing with its Nazi past, were kidnapped and killed.

She was involved in the 1981 attempted murder of 
US General Frederick Kroesen, the commander of 
American forces in Europe, and his wife in a 
rocket propelled grenade attack on his car. She 
also presented flowers to a bank executive before 
shooting him dead. The gang killed 34 people before it was disbanded in 1998.


Mohnhaupt will probably have to change her looks 
and identity upon release at the end of next 
month. Most of the more than 20 terrorists who 
have been freed have been socially rehabilitated. 
Most work under assumed identities. Mohnhaupt was 
an artist before the gang became her life and was 
said to be contemplating a return to painting. 
She has never given an interview and has never asked for a pardon.

President Horst Köhler is contemplating a pardon 
for Christian Klar, another gang member who has 
served 24 years after being given nine life 
sentences. Two other former RAF terrorists remain in jail.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2011815,00.html
******************************************************************************German 
Court Frees Leader of Terror Group
By JUDY DEMPSEY
Published: February 13, 2007 The New York Times

BERLIN, Feb. 12 ­ A German court on Monday 
ordered the release of Brigitte Mohnhaupt, a 
leader of the terrorist Red Army Faction, who has 
been imprisoned for 24 years for kidnappings and murders in the 1970s.

The decision set off sharp protests, led by the 
German police union, but was welcomed by several 
political parties, including the Social Democrats and the Free Democrats.

Konrad Freiberg, the chairman of the police 
union, said the court’s decision to free Ms. 
Mohnhaupt on March 27 “left a bitter taste,” 
adding that the murders would never be forgotten. 
Günther Beckstein, Bavaria’s interior minister, 
also criticized the court, noting that Ms. 
Mohnhaupt had shown no signs of regret.

Ms. Mohnhaupt was a leader of the Red Army 
Faction, also known as the Baader Meinhof gang 
for its founders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike 
Meinhof. It began with the 1968 student protest 
movement but evolved into an armed struggle 
against capitalism. Its activities included bank 
robberies, bombings of government buildings and 
United States military sites in Germany, kidnappings and assassinations.

She had petitioned for early release, but the 
court, in the southern German city of Stuttgart, 
stressed Monday that she was not receiving a 
pardon. “Rather, it is a decision that is based 
on specific legal considerations,” the court said 
in a statement. “The decision for probation was 
reached based on the determination that no security risk exists.”

Ms. Mohnhaupt, 57, was given five life sentences 
plus 15 years in 1985 for her involvement in the 
1977 murders of Hanns Martin Schleyer, a leading 
industrialist, Jürgen Ponto, chairman of Dresdner 
Bank, and Siegfried Buback, a federal prosecutor, 
and in several kidnappings and bank robberies. In 
all, the Red Army Faction murdered 34 people 
beginning in the early 1970s. It disbanded in 
1998, several years after renouncing violence.


Dirk Schleyer, Hanns Martin Schleyer’s son, said 
the court’s decision “was a perversion of justice.”

But several former ministers who had been in 
government during the group’s wave of violence 
praised the decision. Gerhart Baum, the interior 
minister between 1978 and 1982 and a member of 
the opposition Free Democrats, said, “A state 
based on the rule of law is mature enough to give 
a perspective of freedom to one who has been given a life sentence.”

Born into a comfortable bourgeois family in June 
1949, Ms. Mohnhaupt studied English and history 
at Munich University. There, she joined a 
commune, participated in student protests and 
later joined the Red Army Faction.

Her pending release increased speculation on 
Monday about the fate of another Red Army Faction member, Christian Klar.

Mr. Klar, 54, wrote to President Horst Köhler last year seeking a pardon.

Under normal circumstances, Mr. Klar, who has 
also served 24 years, would be scheduled for parole in two years.

Mr. Köhler is not expected to make a decision for 
several months, according to his office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/world/europe/13germany.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


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