Former Red Army Faction Member Daniela Klette Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison After Decades as Fugitive

A German court has found Daniela Klette, believed to be one of the last active members of the Red Army Faction, guilty of aggravated robbery, kidnapping for ransom, attempted kidnapping, and gun law violations, sentencing her to 13 years in prison. Klette and two alleged accomplices — Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, who remain at large — are said to have stolen approximately €2.4 million through armed robberies of supermarkets and armored cash transporters to fund their lives in hiding. She had lived under the alias 'Claudia Ivone' in a Berlin neighborhood for roughly 20 years, leading an outwardly ordinary life that included capoeira classes and social activities, with experts suggesting she was shielded by sympathizers who knew her true identity. Her cover was ultimately broken when a Canadian journalist from the Bellingcat network used AI facial recognition to match decades-old photos with recent images from a Berlin capoeira studio, reportedly identifying her in under 30 minutes. At sentencing, Klette addressed the court, justifying her actions as resistance against capitalism while apologizing for trauma caused to robbery victims, and she stopped short of formally confirming RAF membership. A separate trial on terrorism-related charges — including a bomb attack on a Deutsche Bank building and shots fired at the US Embassy in Bonn in the early 1990s — may follow, though her defense team is challenging those charges on evidentiary grounds. Terrorism charges from her earlier RAF activities cannot be pursued due to statutes of limitations.