2024-03-10 03:47:42
It took him 30 minutes to do what the authorities have failed to do in thirty years. Bellingcat journalist Michael Colborne managed to track down Daniela Klette, one of Europe’s most wanted fugitives according to an Interpol list. A find which probably enabled the Berlin police, at the end of February, to apprehend the 65-year-old woman, accused in particular of attempted murders and robberies, after thirty years on the run.
It all started in the summer of 2023, when a listener of the “Legion” podcast, from German public radio RBB, contacted the team to tell them about one of his meetings, reports Libération. In 2012, he met a certain Monika during a meeting of Anonymous hackers in Cologne, a woman who introduced herself to him as a former terrorist from the Red Army Faction, who we see on a wanted poster.
According to him, it could be Daniela Klette and shared this with the podcasters. In October, they then turned to Canadian journalist and investigator Michael Colborne, an expert in image verification, who compared the two faces and realized that they were not the same person. He decides not to stop there and to carry out his investigation in his own way.
Software costing around thirty euros per month
The investigator then uses Pimeyes facial recognition software to try to trace Daniela Klette. For around thirty euros per month, this software allows you to search for images of a person published on the Internet using a photo. The facial recognition software quickly made the connection with photos of a woman resembling Daniela Klette participating in capoeira classes, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, in Berlin. In about thirty minutes, Michael Colborne found the trace of this alleged member of the former German far-left organization Red Army Faction (RAF) under the pseudonym “Claudia Ivone”.
“I didn’t think I was going to find anything, because the photographs in the wanted poster (…) were 30 years old and they (Editor’s note, certain members of the RAF) had remained under the radar for thirty years” , tells the investigator to the Tageszeitung. “Artificial intelligence is strong, but it cannot perform miracles. If there are no photos of people on the Internet, then she can’t find anything,” he adds.
Police deny being helped by podcast
After having confirmation by going there that Daniela Klette was indeed going to Capoeira classes until 2019, the two journalists are certain that “Claudia Ivone” is indeed the fugitive on the run. They then rushed to publish their investigation via their podcast, “without being able to be completely conclusive,” explains Libé.
The arrest which took place two months later proved them right, but the police claim to have been put on the trail following decisive information from the population in November and not via the podcast. “This source was trusted and the clue was followed. Investigations finally made it possible to locate Daniel Klette in Berlin. For reasons related to the investigation, it is not possible to provide further information,” the Lower Saxony Criminal Police Office told Libération, while acknowledging that the podcast is known to its services. .
For their part, the two podcasters and Michael Colborne assure that they have not transmitted any information to the German police.
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