The search for the suspected ex-RAF terrorists Staub and Garweg continues: The police searched another apartment in Berlin in the evening. According to information from the State Criminal Police Office, the suspects were not caught.
During the search for two former RAF terrorists, the police searched another apartment in Berlin late in the evening. The measure in the Friedrichshain district was connected to the search for Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, said a spokeswoman for the leading Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA).
The suspects were not caught, the spokeswoman said after the search. “No one was found in the apartment, so there were no arrests or anything else,” said the spokeswoman.
She did not say late in the evening whether traces had been found that could help investigators in the further search for the former RAF terrorists Ernst-Volker Staub (69) and Burkhard Garweg (55). The search measures have ended for now. However, the apartment on Grünberger Strasse will continue to be examined forensically, which could still take days.
Garweg caravan discovered
The police had previously searched a left-wing alternative trailer site in Friedrichshain. According to police, the wanted suspected ex-RAF terrorist Garweg apparently lived there. A spokesman for the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA) said that during the search of the area “the alleged accommodation of Burkhard Garweg was very likely identified.” The caravan was confiscated and is now being transported away for further investigations. This happened at night.
The spokesman did not provide any information about how long Garweg was there – but it was a “more recent period”. However, he was no longer found during a major operation on the site; like former RAF member Ernst-Volker Staub, he is still being sought. The search for them is ongoing.
Ten people have now been arrested
In the search for the two fugitive former RAF terrorists, the Berlin police, the LKA and the Federal Criminal Police Office and numerous emergency services were deployed on the site for several hours. According to the Berlin police, the property is a wasteland primarily used by the alternative scene, where there are barracks, mobile homes, caravans and buildings.
During the large-scale operation, the police took ten people into custody. The identity of the people was determined, as the LKA Lower Saxony announced. Those affected did not offer any resistance. “All people have already been released after the identity verification measures have been completed,” it said. According to the information, the ex-RAF terrorists Staub and Garweg were not among the people arrested.
Gunshot noises “related to door opening”
The operation began around 7:30 a.m. in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain, in an industrial area on the corner of Markgrafendamm and Persiusstrasse. The Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office is in charge of the search. The Federal Criminal Police Office and the Berlin police were also involved. A total of around 130, some heavily armed, forces were deployed, including a special operations team.
According to the LKA, the sounds of gunfire were also noticeable during the searches. “These are related to a door opening.” No one was injured.
Trio is said to have committed robberies
The LKA had recently significantly intensified the search for the wanted former RAF members Garweg and Staub. The background is the arrest of the suspected RAF terrorist Daniela Klette last Monday in Berlin. Garweg, Staub and Klette are said to have carried out armed robberies together, including on cash transports, in order to finance their underground life of more than 30 years. New mugshots were only published on Saturday, which are most likely to show Burkhard Garweg.
The investigators assume that the two wanted men could also be in Berlin. Klette, who was wanted on six arrest warrants, was arrested in her apartment in Berlin-Kreuzberg and was taken into custody after being identified by fingerprints. The now 65-year-old woman is said to have lived unrecognized in Berlin for years.
Members of the third generation RAF
All three are said to belong to the third generation of the former left-wing extremist terrorist organization Red Army Faction. During their active time, the then Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen (1989) and Treuhand boss Detlev Karsten Rohwedder (1991) were murdered and Herrhausen’s driver was seriously injured.
For decades, the RAF was the epitome of terror and murder in the west of still divided Germany. In 1998 it declared itself dissolved. Burdock, Staub and Garweg are also wanted for a series of later cash-in-transit robberies.
Raphael Knop, RBB, tagesschau, March 3, 2024 12:54 p.m