2024-03-14 10:21:10
The police are not letting up in the search for two former RAF terrorists. There was another police operation in Berlin, but no one was arrested. Where are cooking paths and dust hiding?
In the search for the two former RAF terrorists who went into hiding, search after search followed in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. A special task force from the Lower Saxony police raided an apartment in a large student dormitory on Tuesday night. Photos show how heavily armed police officers wearing helmets entered the dormitory on the street of the Paris Commune. But neither man was caught.
There was evidence of an object and police officers searched the apartment, said a spokeswoman for the responsible State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Lower Saxony. Two people were found there, whose identities the police have established.
On Tuesday, the LKA also continued to examine the trailer site where the wanted Burkhard Garweg (55) is said to have lived, as well as an apartment on Grünberger Straße in the neighborhood’s bar district. A photo in the newspaper “BZ” showed masked and armed plainclothes police with the inscription “BKA” on their vests. The newspaper quoted a Späti seller who reported privacy protection on the windows of the apartment on Grünberger Strasse and the resident’s purchase of many expensive Amazon vouchers.
The Berlin Police Vice President Marco Langner explained in the RBB-Abendschau why the investigations into these apartments can take so long. “Especially here you have to take time to examine the apartments intensively and carefully. They are prepared for a conspiracy. We have false floors, we have wall enclosures. Not everyone has their submachine gun on the kitchen table, but they are hidden accordingly.”
Cooking path in focus
The search is primarily focused on Garweg: the investigators have taken away his home, he is most likely traveling without logistics – and “really on the run”, which could be incriminating, a spokesman for the Verden public prosecutor’s office said. His biggest concern is therefore a short-circuit act. He appealed to Garweg to turn himself in to avoid possible escalation.
Garweg is said to have temporarily lived in the trailer on the site in Berlin-Friedrichshain. The car was taken away for further investigation. This means that his environment is gone and the pressure on him is increasing, said the spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office. In the apartment of former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette, who was caught a week ago, the police came across recent photos of Garweg. The publication further increased the pressure to investigate.
In front of the Berlin student dormitory, residents appeared surprised this morning, long after the police had left. Students who came from the large residential high-rise near the Ostbahnhof and the famous techno club Berghain knew nothing about a police operation. Several of them said they were asleep and didn’t hear or see anything.
Solidarity with former RAF members
On the Indymedia website, which is associated with the left-wing extremist scene, anonymous authors published photos of civilian police vans, license plates of special operations teams from Berlin and Lower Saxony and locations of operational preparations. It says they want to “counter the manhunt” and show solidarity with the former RAF members who went into hiding. The authors wrote that in Berlin one had “the feeling of being transported back to the 1970s” – with police presence, roadblocks and raids.
A “solidarity demonstration” was also announced on Saturday evening in Berlin-Kreuzberg: “Stop state terrorism – solidarity with those in hiding and prisoners”. Demonstrations, some from the left-wing radical scene, have also been registered for Friday evening on International Women’s Day.
Third generation
Former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette was arrested in Berlin on February 26th. The 65-year-old as well as Garweg and Staub (69) went into hiding over 30 years ago. All three belonged to the so-called third generation of the former left-wing extremist terrorist organization Red Army Faction. This was the epitome of terror and murder in Germany for decades. In 1998 it declared itself dissolved. During the active terror period of the third generation, the then Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen (1989) and Treuhand boss Detlev Karsten Rohwedder (1991) were murdered.
There are arrest warrants against Klette, Staub and Garweg on suspicion of involvement in terrorist attacks. They were or are also wanted for several robberies. Between 1999 and 2016 they are said to have robbed money transporters and supermarkets in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. They are also accused of attempted murder because there was a shooting.