Following a tip-off, a man was temporarily arrested at Berlin-Spandau train station. But he is not the former RAF terrorist Burkhard Garweg, who has been in hiding for years.
False alarm instead of successful search: In the course of the search for the former RAF terrorists Ernst-Volker Staub (69) and Burkhard Garweg (55), the police have temporarily arrested a man at Berlin-Spandau station. However, the person is not an ex-terrorist. “The checks have shown that he is not a wanted person,” said Martin Schanz, spokesman for the Verden public prosecutor’s office, to the German Press Agency. The man’s release has been ordered.
Since 2015, the Verden public prosecutor’s office has been investigating Staub, Garweg and Daniela Klette (65) for attempted murder and attempted and completed aggravated robbery in several cases. Klette was arrested at the end of February this year in Berlin-Kreuzberg, where she had been living in an apartment under a false name.
LKA: “Not the wanted robber”
A tip from the public led to the man’s temporary arrest in Berlin on Tuesday evening. The Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office announced that his identity had been established and that he was not one of the wanted robbers. According to dpa information, a DNA comparison was carried out. To protect the personal rights of the person being checked, the authorities did not provide any further information.
The 65-year-old former RAF terrorist Klette is currently in custody in the women’s prison in Vechta. Her defense attorney Lukas Theune told the dpa that, according to the responsible public prosecutor, charges against Klette will be brought in the fall. The Verden Regional Court would then be responsible for the trial.
Between 1999 and 2016, Klette, Garweg and Staub are said to have robbed armored cars and supermarkets in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia to finance their underground lives. Suspicion of attempted murder is being investigated because shots were fired during the robberies.
According to previous information, arrest warrants have also been issued against Klette, Staub and Garweg on suspicion of involvement in terrorist attacks. They belonged to the so-called third generation of the left-wing extremist Red Army Faction (RAF). In 1998, the RAF, which had killed more than 30 people, declared itself disbanded.
Already several confusions
In recent months, people who were thought to be Garweg or Staub have been checked several times. Most recently, in mid-July, there was a major police operation in Berlin. Witnesses said they had seen Staub on a passenger ship on the Spree. After checking their personal details, this turned out to be a false alarm.
The Federal Criminal Police Office is searching for Garweg, among other things, using a photo that shows him with two dogs and that was found in Klette’s apartment. The officers also seized weapons, ammunition and money in the apartment. The investigators were already hot on the heels of the 55-year-old. Shortly after Klette’s arrest, they confiscated the trailer in Berlin-Friedrichshain in which Garweg had lived under the cover name Martin, according to the investigation.
Source: Stern
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