Alleged ex-Red Army Faction (RAF) member Daniela Klette has denounced as politically motivated her trial in connection with 13 armed robberies, reportedly used to fund her life as Germany’s most-wanted woman.
Ms Klette was speaking from inside a secure glass box in a high-security courtroom in the western German city of Celle, her first public appearance since her arrest in Berlin a year ago after 34 years living under an assumed name.
The 66-year-old says she was a member of the leftist RAF terrorist group, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, but that its popular portrayal in Germany as a “marauding band of robbers, ready to kill” has impacted negatively on the court case.
“This trial is being conducted based on political calculations,” said Ms Klette, her grey hair in a ponytail and dressed in a black sweater and trousers. “What can I expect?”
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Her defence team filed a motion for the dismissal of a trial based on “the demonisation of our client”.
“There is not a single shred of proof that she was at any of the crime scenes, or what role she played,” said lead defence lawyer Undine Weyers.
Public prosecutors took two hours to read out the 600-page indictment against Ms Klette, including 13 cases of grand theft at banks and retail outlets, one charge of attempted murder, and multiple breaches of the War Weapons Control Act.
All charges are linked to armed robberies in which prosecutors say Ms Klette was involved, beginning a year after the RAF officially disbanded in 1998, and continuing until 2016.
At a later, separate trial, Ms Klette will face charges of membership of a terrorist organisation and involvement in early 1990s RAF attacks on Deutsche Bank, the US embassy in Bonn and a prison.
Outside the court, about 50 people gathered in support of Ms Klette, holding up banners reading “Defend revolutionary history” and “Freedom for Daniele Klette and political prisoners”.
As they placed music and held speeches, they were watched closely by masked special forces police in full riot gear and carrying machine guns.
Also outside the locked-down court were lawyers for four people caught up in the series of armed robberies, participating in the trial as joint plaintiffs.
Steffen Hörning, representing a cash transport driver attacked in June 2015, said: “My client was left in a very bad way after the attack, he had to go to rehab for months.”
Despite the retraumatising effect of the trial, Mr Hörning said his client had agreed to testify next month in a trial expected to last at least two years.
If found guilty of the robbery charges, Ms Klette could face five years in prison, while attempted murder carries a life sentence. The whereabouts of two alleged accomplices of Ms Klette remain unknown after she reportedly tipped them off about her arrest.
