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<font size=3>Baader Meinhof terrorist to be freed after 24 years in
jail<br>
× Brigitte Mohnhaupt is not a security risk, court rules<br>
× Families of gang's victims angry at killer's release <br>
Kate Connolly in Berlin<br><br>
Tuesday February 13, 2007<br>
The Guardian <br>
<br>
Two police photographs of Brigitte Mohnhaupt, who has spent 24 years in
prison for her involvement in nine murders. Photographs: AP/EPA<br>
<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
The decision was condemned by the families of Mohnhaupt's victims,
particularly because she had shown no remorse.<br>
<br>
"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.<br>
<br>
Mr Schleyer said he feared Mohnhaupt's release meant it would never now
be possible to establish who shot his father.<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#FF0000">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.</font><font size=3>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2011815,00.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2011815,00.html<br>
</a>
******************************************************************************German
Court Frees Leader of Terror Group <br>
By JUDY DEMPSEY<br>
Published: February 13, 2007 <i>The New York Times<br>
</i> <br>
BERLIN, Feb. 12 <b>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</b>.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
She had petitioned for early release, but the court, in the southern
German city of Stuttgart, stressed Monday that <b>she was not receiving a
pardon</b>. “Rather, it is a decision that is based on specific legal
considerations,” the court said in a statement. <b>“The decision for
probation was reached based on the determination that no security risk
exists.” <br>
</b> <br>
Ms. Mohnhaupt, 57, was given <b>five life sentences plus 15 years </b>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.<b> In all, the Red Army Faction murdered 34 people
beginning in the early 1970s. It disbanded in 1998, several years after
renouncing violence</b>.<br>
<br><br>
Dirk Schleyer, Hanns Martin Schleyer’s son, said the court’s decision
“was a perversion of justice.”<br>
<br>
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, <b>“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.”
<br>
</b> <br>
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.<br>
<br>
Her pending release increased speculation on Monday about the fate of
another Red Army Faction member, Christian Klar.<br>
<br>
Mr. Klar, 54, wrote to President Horst Köhler last year seeking a
pardon.<br>
<br>
Under normal circumstances, Mr. Klar, who has also served 24 years, would
be scheduled for parole in two years. <br>
<br>
Mr. Köhler is not expected to make a decision for several months,
according to his office.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/world/europe/13germany.html?_r=1&oref=slogin" eudora="autourl">
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/world/europe/13germany.html?_r=1&oref=slogin<br>
<br>
</a></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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