Crime: New searches in the hunt for ex-RAF terrorists

The investigators want to track down the former RAF terrorists Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub who went into hiding with new searches. The investigators searched a man and an apartment in the Gallus district of Frankfurt as well as his apartment in Berlin-Friedrichshain, said a spokesman for the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office. The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported.

The spokesman emphasized that the man was an “unsuspicious person.” The search warrant obtained at the request of the Verden public prosecutor’s office referred to the apartments and the man himself, but there was a connection with the search for Garweg and Staub. During the searches, the investigators confiscated, among other things, “digital evidence” that would now be evaluated. The spokesman did not provide any further information about the action or the man.

Garweg (56), Staub (70) and Daniela Klette (66) have been under investigation for attempted murder and attempted and completed aggravated robbery for years. Between 1999 and 2016 they are said to have robbed money transporters and supermarkets, especially in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, in order to finance their underground life. However, the acts had no terrorist background.

The three belonged to the so-called third generation of the left-wing extremist Red Army Faction (RAF). The RAF, which killed more than 30 people, declared itself disbanded in 1998. Klette was arrested in Berlin in February and charges have since been brought against the 66-year-old.

Shortly after Klette’s arrest, investigators also confiscated a construction trailer in Berlin-Friedrichshain, where Garweg is said to have lived under the code name Martin. According to witnesses, the 56-year-old was also said to have been in Hamburg, among other places; they said they had seen Garweg there at the end of October.