Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Ex-Red Army Faction leader Klar released

|
|
 
  
Published: Dec. 19, 2008 at 12:26 PM

STUTTGART, Germany, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Former Red Army Faction leader Christian Klar was released Friday from a German jail after serving 26 years of five concurrent life sentences, officials said.

Justice officials in the German city of Stuttgart said the 56-year-old Klar was granted parole last month after serving part of his sentence for being convicted of several killings, Deutsche Welle reported.

Klar was convicted of taking part in the 1977 kidnapping and killing of industry representative Hanns Martin Schleyer and also in the deaths of federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and Dresdner Bank Chief Executive Officer Juergen Ponto.

Klar has been tied to nine homicides but his alleged role in the crimes remains unclear.

Klar has remained steadfast in his refusal to identify the individuals responsible for the homicides and has not shown remorse for his convicted crimes, Deutsche Welle said.

Hamburg Interior Minister Christoph Ahlhaus has opposed Klar's release, citing the man's numerous crimes as a reason for continued incarceration.

Ahlhaus said release of Klar was "intolerable." He called Klar "a violent criminal who caused people such immeasurable pain and ... never distanced himself from his grave crimes."

Topics: Christian Klar
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
New book is full of girls in their bedrooms, will be read by people who need to have a seat right...
★☆☆☆☆ Michigan is an uninhabitable swamp. Do not settle
As part of the Queen's jubilee celebrations, Top Gear presenter James May has built a contraption...
New, comprehensive data on all the reasons why people break-up. Bad news for Farkers: drinking too...
There is finally a car that's more dangerous to rear-end than a Ford Pinto
Here is the full list of 2012 hurricane names. Wait... Hurricane Kirk?