ARMED WITH a book and a bottle of water, former Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorist Verena Becker went on trial yesterday accused of plotting the murder of West Germany’s federal prosecutor in 1977.
The black-haired 57 year-old, in a white jeans jacket, a turtle-neck sweater and dark glasses, confirmed her identity but was otherwise silent during what may be the last RAF trial.
For Becker, the return to the windowless Stuttgart courtroom will have evoked memories of the 1977 trials – and prison suicides – here of fellow members of the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang after founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
During the 1970s the gang operated a violent campaign against what they saw as an increasingly oppressive West German state, with former Nazis in leading positions.
When Baader, Meinhof and others were captured, fellow gang members including Becker tried to force their release with fresh campaign of kidnappings and shootings.
One such attack came in April 1977 in the southern city of Karlsruhe, when a motorcycle pillion passenger shot dead the West German state prosecutor, Siegfried Buback, a court official and driver, as they waited at traffic lights.
The person who fired the fatal shots has never been identified and Becker is not on trial on that charge. Instead she is accused of aiding and abetting the attack after traces of her DNA were found last year on the gang’s letter claiming responsibility for the attack.
Reopening the Buback case has caused a sensation in Germany, where nearly all convicted former RAF members have been released from prison and live in seclusion.
Becker is reportedly an unemployed practitioner of alternative medicine, living on welfare.
Some 30 years ago, German prosecutors closed their case against her over the Buback case but she went to prison for 12 years for shooting at police officers during her arrest in May 1977. She was pardoned and released after serving just nine years in 1989.
Present in court yesterday was Mr Buback’s son, Michael. He has researched the still unsolved murder of his father in depth and is convinced Becker was the one who fired the shots.
In his investigations, he says some 20 witnesses remember the helmeted pillion passenger as a diminutive person or a woman. With her slight built, he is convinced that points the finger at Becker.
The murder weapon, a semi-automatic rifle, was also found in Becker’s possession when she was arrested a month after the shooting.
The state prosecutor does not believe Becker was involved.
Speculation around this case centres on what information will emerge about Becker’s activities as a paid informer to the German security services. Even if she is convicted of assisting the shooting, she may be freed in consideration of time already served.
Surviving RAF members have always declined to name those involved in carrying out their attacks, even since the group was disbanded officially in 1998 after killing 34 people.