The jailing of Germany’s most wanted woman – podcast

Dancer, dog owner, bank robber. Germany’s most wanted woman, Daniela Klette , has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after decades on the run. Deborah Cole and Jason Burke report

To her friends and neighbours, there was nothing extraordinary about Claudia Ivone.

As our Berlin correspondent, Deborah Cole , explains, the silver-haired 67-year-old had spent years living in the same apartment in a bohemian neighbourhood of West Berlin. She led an ordinary life: she owned a dog, went shopping and pursued an unusual hobby as an active member of a local capoeira dance group.

But Claudia was not what she seemed. In fact, that was not even her real name. She was actually Daniela Klette.

For three decades, Klette had been on the run, evading justice for violent crimes committed as a leading member of West Germany’s most notorious far-left militant group, the Red Army Faction, or RAF.

After her arrest two years ago, she was finally sentenced at the end of May to 13 years in prison.

The Guardian’s international security correspondent, Jason Burke , joins Annie Kelly to discuss the history of the RAF and whether the conditions exist today for the resurgence of armed militant groups like it.