German terrorist may be released soon

In President Bush's War on Terror, many are ignorant of, or have forgotten that terrorism is not new in Europe, from Basque ETA activists , in Ireland, the IRA and and UVF and their continuing splinter groups and in germany the Baader - Meinhof Gang and the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) who killed over 30 people.

One of their most determined German activists may soon be released.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt (pic) was first arrested on 9th June 1972 in Berlin in connection with the Red Army Faction and sentenced to prison for involvement with a criminal organisation. She was released from prison on 8 February 1977, and immediately went back underground and continued her work with the RAF.

On the 15th September 1981 Mohnhaupt took part in an assassination attempt on US General Frederick Kroesen using an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket. Kroesen survived but was badly injured.

On 11 November 1982 she was arrested along with Adelheid Schulz, attempting to enter an RAF arms cache in woods near Frankfurt which had been staked out by GSG9 operatives who had infiltrated their cell. She was subsequently charged with involvement in the murder on 30 July 1977 of banker Jürgen Ponto, chairman of the Dresdner Bank board of directors in Oberursel, Taunus ,and also involvement in the kidnappijng and subsequent murder of ex Nazi and German employers representative Hanns Martin Schleyer. She was found guilty and sentenced to 5 life sentences and has since spent most of her time in Aichach prison in Bavaria.

On 21st February last year she applied for early release in the regional court in Stuttgart and was rejected and it was determined that the minimum sentence required was 24 years which the Federal prosecutor Klaus Pflieger demanded / requested - meaning the earliest possible release date would be 26 March,2007.

She is now 57 and has re-applied for release and the Bavarian Ministry of Justice are expected to report by the end of February on her case. Press coment this week in Stren, Der Zeit suggets that her release is expected.

Andrea Martina Klump (50) was the last RAF member to be imprisoned. She was the girlfriend of Horst Ludwig Meyer and with him attempted to bomb a Spanish disco in Rota in 1984 which was often frequented by US servicemen however the attempt fell through. She was also cnsidered to be involved with the murder of banker Alfred Herrhausen in 1989 but nothing was ever proved.

With Meyer on December 23, 1991 an attempt was made with a 25KG bomb of military explosives to bomb a bus on the way to Budapest airport with 33 people on board including 29 Soviet Jewish emigrants with a car bomb.

The bomb exploded prematurely and nobody was killed but several were injured. They evaded Police until September 15, 1999 when they were approached by the police in Vienna , Meyer was shot and Klump who survived, was extradited to Germany .

She confessed to the attempted Spanish Disco bombing (German law allows trial for offences outside German territory) and was sentenced in May 2001 to 9 years but charges of involvement in a terrorist organisation, were dropped.

Klump partially confessed to the 1991 Hungary bombing, accepting prior knowledge but not direct involvement - DNA evidence of Klump's stay in Budapest around the time of the bombing linked her to it and on September 28th 2004 Klump was sentenced by a High Court in Stuttgart to a further 12 years in prison.