The German president, Horst Köhler, yesterday bowed to pressure from his fellow conservatives and refused clemency to a key member of the Red Army Faction movement involved in terrorising Germany three decades ago.Mr Köhler, who last week secretly met Christian Klar, 54, who is serving six life sentences for nine murders carried out in the 1970s, gave no reason for his decision, but his office said it had been based on lengthy discussions with legal experts, prison authorities and personal meetings with the relatives of some of the RAF's victims as well as with Klar.
The German media had been waiting with bated breath for Mr Köhler's verdict, which is just the latest in a series of twists and turns in Germany's attempts to draw a line under the RAF chapter and the trail of destruction the gang left across the country in the autumn of 1977 in its efforts to crush capitalism. The 30th anniversary of the so-called "German Autumn" is being marked with the release of films, plays, books and biographies on the urban guerrillas.
| You drew a line when you jugged them all. Now keep them there. |
The decision on Klar comes shortly after the release from a multiple life sentence of former RAF leader Brigitte Mohnhaupt. In a separate decision Mr Köhler refused to pardon another member, Birgit Hogefeld, who is 14 years into a life sentence for the 1985 bombing of a US military air base in which two people died.
Klar was sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in prison for his part in nine murders, including those of the chief West German federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback, the industrial association leader Hanns-Martin Schleyer and Jürgen Ponto, the head of Dresdner Bank in 1977.
Mr Köhler's decision to meet Klar was based on a request from the former terrorist. But the mere fact that Klar's release was being contemplated brought angry reactions from many Christian Democrats who count Mr Köhler as one of them. They argued that, because Klar had shown no public remorse, he did not deserve to be shown any mercy. They even indirectly threatened not to elect Mr Köhler for a second term if he decided to release Klar.
The attacks on Mr Köhler became so fierce that the chancellor, Angela Merkel, weighed in and asked her colleagues not to interfere with his decision. "I ask that we all, regardless of how the president decides in the end, respect the decision of Horst Köhler," she said in a statement.
| "And then we'll cut him off at the knees." |