Police in Berlin arrested a former member of a far-left militant group who had evaded capture for more than 30 years, the Associated Press reported.
Daniela Klette, 65, who was wanted for her role in a series of robberies, was arrested at a Berlin apartment on February 26. According to investigators, a tip received in November had led them to Klette’s whereabouts.
Friedo de Vries, the head of the Lower Saxony criminal police office told reporters that Klette did not resist arrest. The 65-year-old former member of Red Army Faction had been using a foreign passport under a false name at the time of her arrest. Fingerprints confirmed her real identity.
In a search of the apartment, police found two pistol magazines and ammunition but no weapon, according to de Vries.
Red Army Faction was a militant group that was formed by German students in protest of the Vietnam War. The group waged a campaign of violence against what it considered American imperialism and capitalist oppression. Before disbanding in 1998, the group had killed 34 people and injured hundreds of others.
Klette and fellow former RAF members Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub have been connected to 12 robberies between 1999 and 2016 in northern Germany. They are also wanted for attempted murder.
German authorities believe the robberies were to help finance the trio’s lives on the run.
Berlin police said on Sunday that a team of about 130 officers had been on the ground looking for Staub and Garweg since Klette was apprehended but had so far been unsuccessful, Reuters reported.
On Saturday, officials released a series of photos believed to be of Burkhard Garweg that had been taken in the past three years.
De Vries had announced on February 27 that a man had been arrested. However, he later said Garweg and Staub remained at large.
Klette was transferred to Verden in northern Germany where a judge remanded her into custody pending an indictment on six robberies.
Authorities are uncertain where Klette had been hiding for all these years or how long she had been living in the Berlin apartment.
