Verden, Germany – May 27, 2026
The regional court in Verden, Lower Saxony, on Tuesday sentenced alleged former Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorist Daniela Klette to a 13-year prison term for aggravated robbery, weapons offenses, and other crimes.
The court found it proven that the defendant, now 67 years old, participated alongside her alleged accomplices Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub in a series of armed robberies targeting supermarkets and cash-in-transit vehicles. These acts took place between 1999 and 2016, primarily in the states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to investigators, the trio is believed to have stolen more than 2.7 million euros during these criminal operations. The verdict, handed down near Bremen, marks the judicial epilogue to a more than thirty-year flight from justice for Daniela Klette, who belonged to the third generation of the far-left terrorist group.
A Three-Decade Flight Ended in Berlin
Daniela Klette lived underground for more than 30 years, evading law enforcement since the dissolution of the RAF. Her flight ended in 2024 when she was arrested in Berlin, bringing to a close one of the longest manhunts in recent German criminal history.
The woman in her sixties stood trial for acts committed long after the terrorist organization's official self-dissolution in 1998. The Verden court found her guilty of multiple counts of aggravated robbery, thus confirming her direct involvement in the attacks carried out against cash transporters and commercial establishments.
Two Accomplices Still at Large
While Daniela Klette's fate is now sealed, the investigation remains open regarding her two co-defendants. Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub are still actively being sought by German authorities. They are suspected of having planned and executed the robberies alongside the convicted woman.
The justice system relies on the findings of investigators who hold the trio responsible for a series of methodical attacks. The total amount of the loot, estimated at over 2.7 million euros, testifies to the scale and duration of the alleged criminal activities, which spanned nearly two decades.
The Judicial Twilight of the Third Generation
Daniela Klette is an emblematic figure of what historians and security services call the third generation of the RAF. This far-left group left its mark on Germany through violent actions before announcing its dissolution at the end of the 1990s.
The Verden trial, however, focused on the purely criminal and venal dimension of the alleged acts, which occurred after the armed ideological struggle. The conviction for aggravated robbery and weapons law violations illustrates the shift into banditry by some of its members after the end of the clandestine struggle.