BERLIN (AP) - A German court on Monday approved parole for one of the last jailed members of the Red Army Faction in a case that has revived painful memories of the left-wing terrorist group's 1970s heyday.
Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57, will be released March 27 after serving 24 years of a life sentence for multiple murders, the Stuttgart state court ruled.
Mohnhaupt was convicted in 1985 of involvement in nine murders, including those of West German chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the head of the country's industry federation.
She was given five life sentences on the murder charges and convictions on other counts. Those included attempted murder for her part in a 1981 rocket-propelled grenade attack on the car of U.S. Gen. Frederick Krosen—then the commander of U.S. forces in Europe—which injured both the general and his wife.
The court decided Mohnhaupt fulfilled the conditions of her sentence and no longer posed a threat to society, court spokeswoman Josefine Koeblitz said.
The decision was made "according to legal conditions and was not an act of clemency," Koeblitz said.
She will be on probation for five years.
Mohnhaupt was a leader in the Red Army Faction, once known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, which sought to combat what it saw as capitalist oppression of workers and U.S. imperialism.
Active from 1970—when it grew out of student anti-Vietnam war protests—until 1992, when it abandoned violence, the group formally disbanded in 1998.
The Red Army Faction carried out kidnappings, bank robberies and armed attacks on prominent government and business figures.
U.S. military facilities and personnel in Germany were also targeted, and the group had ties to Palestinian radicals and to communist East Germany's secret police, the Stasi.
Over the decades, Red Army Faction members killed 34 people and injured hundreds of others. In addition to their prominent targets, victims included bystanders, police officers and chauffeurs.
Mohnhaupt was captured early in her involvement with the Red Army Faction in Berlin in 1972 and jailed for several years. Released in she immediately went back to the group and played a key role in the trail of death it left later that year, which became known as the "German Autumn."
She was arrested again in then-communist Yugoslavia in 1978, but allowed to go six months later.
She was finally captured by West German authorities on Nov. 11, 1982, as she went to an arms cache in woods near Frankfurt, which had been staked out by a special police unit for two weeks after they received a tip from locals who had stumbled upon it.
Mohnhaupt had petitioned for her release in a bid for parole that was supported by prosecutors in a closed hearing in January.
The Stuttgart court rejected Mohnhaupt's petition for freedom last year on the grounds that she must serve at least 24 years.
The ruling coincides with as a separate petition for clemency from Germany's president by another convicted Red Army Faction member, Christian Klar. Klar still has two years to serve before qualifying for possible parole.
While some say Mohnhaupt and Klar, like other convicted murderers, have a right to parole under German law, others want to see expressions of remorse and clarification of questions over who pulled the trigger in the murders of Buback, Schleyer and others.
The head of Germany's police union noted that the terror group killed 10 officers. Konrad Freiberg said that, while the judges' decision to release Mohnhaupt had to be accepted, "we will not forget these murders."
"A feeling of bitterness remains," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57, will be released March 27 after serving 24 years of a life sentence for multiple murders, the Stuttgart state court ruled.
Mohnhaupt was convicted in 1985 of involvement in nine murders, including those of West German chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the head of the country's industry federation.
She was given five life sentences on the murder charges and convictions on other counts. Those included attempted murder for her part in a 1981 rocket-propelled grenade attack on the car of U.S. Gen. Frederick Krosen—then the commander of U.S. forces in Europe—which injured both the general and his wife.
The court decided Mohnhaupt fulfilled the conditions of her sentence and no longer posed a threat to society, court spokeswoman Josefine Koeblitz said.
The decision was made "according to legal conditions and was not an act of clemency," Koeblitz said.
She will be on probation for five years.
Mohnhaupt was a leader in the Red Army Faction, once known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, which sought to combat what it saw as capitalist oppression of workers and U.S. imperialism.
Active from 1970—when it grew out of student anti-Vietnam war protests—until 1992, when it abandoned violence, the group formally disbanded in 1998.
The Red Army Faction carried out kidnappings, bank robberies and armed attacks on prominent government and business figures.
U.S. military facilities and personnel in Germany were also targeted, and the group had ties to Palestinian radicals and to communist East Germany's secret police, the Stasi.
Over the decades, Red Army Faction members killed 34 people and injured hundreds of others. In addition to their prominent targets, victims included bystanders, police officers and chauffeurs.
Mohnhaupt was captured early in her involvement with the Red Army Faction in Berlin in 1972 and jailed for several years. Released in she immediately went back to the group and played a key role in the trail of death it left later that year, which became known as the "German Autumn."
She was arrested again in then-communist Yugoslavia in 1978, but allowed to go six months later.
She was finally captured by West German authorities on Nov. 11, 1982, as she went to an arms cache in woods near Frankfurt, which had been staked out by a special police unit for two weeks after they received a tip from locals who had stumbled upon it.
Mohnhaupt had petitioned for her release in a bid for parole that was supported by prosecutors in a closed hearing in January.
The Stuttgart court rejected Mohnhaupt's petition for freedom last year on the grounds that she must serve at least 24 years.
The ruling coincides with as a separate petition for clemency from Germany's president by another convicted Red Army Faction member, Christian Klar. Klar still has two years to serve before qualifying for possible parole.
While some say Mohnhaupt and Klar, like other convicted murderers, have a right to parole under German law, others want to see expressions of remorse and clarification of questions over who pulled the trigger in the murders of Buback, Schleyer and others.
The head of Germany's police union noted that the terror group killed 10 officers. Konrad Freiberg said that, while the judges' decision to release Mohnhaupt had to be accepted, "we will not forget these murders."
"A feeling of bitterness remains," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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