VZCZCXRO1497
PP RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHLZ
DE RUEHFT #0359 0380843
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 070843Z FEB 08
FM AMCONSUL FRANKFURT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4558
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS FRANKFURT 000359 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/AGS, EUR/PGI, S/CT 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER KCRM ASEC GM
SUBJECT: Authorities Pressure Former RAF Members to Talk 
 
REF:  07 Frankfurt 594 
 
Sensitive but unclassified; not for internet distribution. 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  The future of former RAF terrorist Christian Klar, who 
was scheduled to be freed from prison in 2009, hangs in the balance 
following the Baden-Wuerttemberg Justice Ministry's decision to 
rescind his privileges and postpone his release on the grounds that 
he poses a risk of escaping.  The action follows a federal court 
decision to extend his detention and re-imprison two 
already-released former RAF members in an attempt to obtain 
testimony in an ongoing investigation.  The fate of Klar and his 
former associates remains a hot-button issue in Germany, testing 
public attitudes on the role of the judicial system in fighting 
terrorism.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  Baden-Wuerttemberg (B-W) Minister of Justice Ulrich Goll (Free 
Democratic Party - FDP) decided February 1 to rescind limited 
privileges enjoyed by Christian Klar and postpone his release to an 
"unspecified point in time."  In spring 2007, state judicial 
authorities had granted him several privileges to ease his 
reintegration into society in order to prepare him for release, 
which was originally planned for early 2009.  Since that time, Klar 
had been allowed to leave the prison three times without ankle 
bracelets in the company of prison guards.  The B-W Justice Ministry 
explained its decision by saying that, because Klar is under 
pressure to testify in an ongoing investigation, there is a renewed 
danger of his escaping.  Klar's attorney, Hans-Juergen Schneider, 
has already appealed the decision to the Federal Criminal Court 
(Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) in Karlsruhe. 
 
¶3.  BACKGROUND:  Klar is one of the former leaders of the second 
generation of the extreme left terrorist group Red Army Faction 
(RAF) that terrorized Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.  He was 
imprisoned in 1982 after being found guilty of nine counts of 
murder.  While it is considered unlikely that Klar, who is 
fifty-five, would try to escape, the decision may be a further 
attempt to make him give information on the 1977 RAF murder of 
Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback. 
 
¶4.  The move follows the BGH decision in late December 2007 to 
extend Klar's imprisonment by six months and detain for six months 
former RAF members Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Knut Folkerts in order to 
coerce them into giving information on the Buback murder.  Mohnhaupt 
and Folkerts, who were released from prison in March 2007 and 
October 1995 respectively, have announced they will appeal the 
decision.  Mohnhaupt is currently on probation. 
 
¶5.  The Office of the Federal Prosecutor decided in April 2007 to 
resume investigations of the Buback murder.  In the spring of 2007, 
former RAF terrorist Peter-Juergen Boock told Michael Buback, 
Siegfried Buback's son, that another RAF member, Stefan Wisniewski, 
had shot his father.  The original investigation had found Klar, 
Mohnhaupt and Folkerts guilty of murdering Buback, but all three 
refused to testify on the crime.  The continuing refusal of former 
RAF members to give information or express remorse has frustrated 
investigators and turned public sentiment against their early 
release. 
 
¶6.  COMMENT:  More than thirty years after the RAF assassinations of 
several high-ranking German officials, German public opinion 
continues to be divided between those who advocate tough punishments 
for terrorists and those who argue that the RAF members are no 
longer a threat to society.  The release of Mohnhaupt in 2007 and 
the awarding of privileges to Klar exposed deep divisions in German 
society on the role of punishment in the judicial system.  The new 
rulings against Klar will once again bring attention to this 
unresolved debate.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶7.  This cable was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
POWELL