| Daniela Klette | |
| Birth Name: | Daniela Marie Luise Klette |
| Birth Date: | 5 November 1958 |
| Birth Place: | Karlsruhe, West Germany |
| Organization: | Red Army Faction |
Daniela Marie Luise Klette (born 5 November 1958) is a German left-wing militant. She is a suspected former German terrorist associated with the third generation Red Army Faction (RAF). She went underground in the 1990s and was arrested in February 2024.
Daniela Marie Luise Klette was born on 5 November 1958 in Karlsruhe, West Germany.[1] [2]
Klette was active in left-wing groups from 1975 onward. These groups included the Anti-NATO movement and initiatives against the construction of Runway 18 West at Frankfurt Airport.[3]
Klette is an alleged member of the third generation Red Army Faction active during the 1980s and 1990s.[4] [5] [6] Klette is suspect in the 1991 United States embassy sniper attack in Bonn and the 1993 explosives attack against Weiterstadt prison under construction in the state of Hesse.[7]
In the 1990s, Klette went underground.[8] In 1999, Klette, Garweg, and Staub were suspected of robbing DM 1 million from an armoured vehicle in Duisburg.[9]
Referred to by the press as "RAF pensioners", Staub, Garweg, and Klette are also associated with several robberies in the 2000s and 2010s: in Bochum-Wattenscheid (27/12/2006), Wolfsburg (28/12/2015), Cremlingen (25/06/2016) and Stuhr (06/06/2015). The German public prosecutor's office had been investigating the three since 2015 for attempted murder and various attempted and completed aggravated robberies between 1999 and 2016.[10] In 2016, three Germans matching their description were mistakenly arrested by Dutch police after renting a farmhouse near Medemblik in the north of the Netherlands.[11] The Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office) put out a public appeal for information leading to her arrest, or that of accomplices Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, offering a reward of 150,000 euros.[2] Police found her after a tip-off from the public in November 2023.
As of February 2024 it was unclear how she managed to stay underground for 30 years.[12]
On 26 February 2024, Klette was arrested in Berlin by LKA Niedersachsen and the Berlin Police without resistance.[4] She was charged with involvement in six armed robberies in which millions of euros were stolen, and at least one attempted murder. The crimes were alleged to have been committed between 1999 and 2016. Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub were also alleged to have been involved.[13]
Daniela Klette lived at Sebastianstrasse 73, on the fifth floor, under the assumed name Claudia Ivone and an italian passport.[4] [14] She also had a Facebook account.[15] [16]
It was pointed out that her photo as "Claudia Ivone"[17] in a capoiera club in Kreuzberg could have been found by and Bellingcat researcher[18] [19] Michael Colborne, using the face biometrics software PimEyes[20] [21] for the Legion: Most Wanted podcast.[22] [23] It was claimed that it was illegal for police to use this kind of software in their investigations.[24]
Daniela Klette has made no statements about the allegations made against her or about the RAF comrades.[25]
The arrest of Daniela Klette was headline news in all German media outlets for days.
The Lower Saxon authorities gave a live press conference announcing the arrest of the former terrorist, who had been wanted for 30 years. Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) spoke of a "milestone" in German crime history. The head of the LKA Lower Saxony called the arrest a “masterpiece”.[26]
According to historian Petra Terhoeven, the reporting had boulevard-esque features. The Tagesspiegel described in detail the ordinary furnishings of Klette's one-room apartment.[27]
de:Khesrau Behroz
. 2024-02-29 . . de . . In this episode Colborne is introduced to the listeners as a Bellingcat employee investigating far-right extremism and having expertise in face biometrics. Colborne matches face of the first suspect "Monika" to the face of Klette using the software by Amazon, and gives his opinion about the result that there is no match. Then it is said that using another software they have managed to find another suspect in Berlin.de:Khesrau Behroz
. 2024-02-29 . . de. In the episode Colborne describes the purpose of another biometric software which searches for images in the Internet having faces similar to a certain one, his use of the software, their discovery of dozens of photos of a female they nickname as "Felicia" in a Berlin capoiera club, his opinion about how much the face on the photos match the one on Klette's photo ("strongly suspect that these two individuals are the same person"), their analysis of photos on Facebook page of the club chairman, which was sharing photos and videos of the club's dance lessons there, presence of "Felicia" in some of them, and their visit to the club and observation of the photos of "Felicia" there too, and their interview to the club employee mentioning that "Felicia" has not been seen in the club for some years.