Klette – the last female member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) terror network still on the run until her arrest at her flat on Monday evening – was known by many dog walkers in the area not by her name or her notorious past, rather as the “owner of Malaika”.
White-overalled forensic investigators filed out of Klette’s flat in a run-down 1950s housing block removing boxes and bags, her bike and even an anti-tank weapon, on top of the Kalashnikov rifle and a machine pistol discovered there two days before. Her neighbours – evacuated overnight due to the discovery of the weapons – were still trying to digest the news about who had been living in their midst.
Klette spent more than three decades hiding in broad daylight. She gave maths and German tutoring to school pupils in the neighbourhood, either free or for cash, and helped Turkish nationals to write letters to the authorities, neighbours said. One said she had baked biscuits for him one Christmas.
For several years she was deeply involved in a Brazilian culture centre in the district, where she practised capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines dance and fighting. There is photographic evidence she travelled to Brazil with her dance troupe; she held a falsified Italian passport. Members of the group recall a friendly, gentle but taciturn character.
It is thought that the discovery of photographs of her with her capoeira group at Berlin’s annual carnival of cultures – smiling, tossing petal confetti, a white bandana on her head – led to her identification and arrest.
I still remember reading about her arrest a couple of years ago:
Damn, lady was enjoying her retirement to the fullest
She sounds like a great person