Story perspectives

Facial-Recognition Nabs 30-Year Fugitive, Sentences to 13 Years

5/27/2026

Summary

Story summary

Facial-recognition software helped a journalist locate Daniela Klette in Berlin, prompting her 2024 arrest after thirty years on the run.
German courts sentenced Red Army Faction member Klette to thirteen years for robberies (1999-2016), during which police seized a Kalashnikov, explosives and counterfeit documents in her Kreuzberg flat.
Authorities hunt accomplices Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub while proceedings charge Klette with attacks on a U.S. embassy, a prison and Deutsche Bank.

History

Historical Context

During the 1977 German Autumn, the Red Army Faction kidnapped industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer (5 Sept) and hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181, leading Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to order GSG 9’s rescue of 87 hostages on 18 Oct. Decades later, Berlin police used facial-recognition to arrest former RAF member Daniela Klette, linking her to robberies from 1999-2016 successfully.

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Story summary

Facial-recognition software helped a journalist locate Daniela Klette in Berlin, prompting her 2024 arrest after thirty years on the run.
German courts sentenced Red Army Faction member Klette to thirteen years for robberies (1999-2016), during which police seized a Kalashnikov, explosives and counterfeit documents in her Kreuzberg flat.
Authorities hunt accomplices Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub while proceedings charge Klette with attacks on a U.S. embassy, a prison and Deutsche Bank.

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