Soft on Radical Murderers

Utterly appalling!

German court paroles ex-Red Army leader

How cheap is life to these "progressives" in Europe?

Five life sentences for the calculated political murders of nine people gets you 24 years in Germany.

That's a mere 32 months in prison per life taken!

BERLIN - A court paroled a one-time leader of Germany's notorious Red Army Faction Monday after 24 years in prison, amid bitter memories of the left-wing terrorist group's attacks on law enforcement and business leaders, which plunged the country into fear three decades ago.

She wasn't just a groupie, mind you, but a planner and executioner:

Mohnhaupt was arrested in 1982 and convicted of involvement in nine murders, including those of West German chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback, Dresdner Bank head Juergen Ponto and Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the head of the country's industry federation.

She shot Ponto three times when he resisted a kidnapping attempt in Oberursel near Frankfurt in 1977, the court said. Other times, she was involved in planning killings and attacks.

She was given five life sentences for murder and other non-fatal attacks, including a 1981 rocket-propelled grenade assault on the car of U.S. Gen. Frederick Kroesen — then the commander of U.S. forces in Europe — which injured the general and his wife.

Detained several times and released, she kept going back to trying to bring down civilization:

Mohnhaupt was captured early in her involvement with the Red Army Faction in Berlin in 1972 and jailed for several years. Released in 1977, she immediately went back to the group and played a key role in the trail of death it left later that year, which became known as the "German Autumn."

She was arrested again in then-communist Yugoslavia in 1978, but allowed to go six months later.

She was finally captured by West German authorities on Nov. 11, 1982, as she went to an arms cache in woods near Frankfurt, which had been staked out by police for two weeks after they received a tip from locals who had stumbled upon it.

Mohnhaupt had petitioned for her release in a bid for parole that was supported by prosecutors in a closed hearing in January.

Supported by prosecutors!

The Stuttgart court, supported by prosecutors, decided Mohnhaupt no longer posed a threat. Former Justice Minister Klaus Kinkel, said it was time "to give Mohnhaupt a chance to return to society."

And, the radical-chic Left just loves it!

Many left-wing politicians welcomed her release as a chance to turn the page on a dark chapter of post-war German history, but Edmund Stoiber, the influential conservative leader of Bavaria, said she should not be allowed back into society until she publicly apologizes for her acts.

What was this Red Army gang? They're the people the left idolizes when they wear Che Guevarre T-shirts and jihadist neckscarves. They even worked with islamists back then -- the ties were already forged:

The middle-class leftists, styling themselves as "urban guerrillas" after Latin American radicals, emerged from German student protests against the Vietnam War, launching a violent, 22-year campaign against what they considered U.S. imperialism and capitalist oppression of workers.

The demands were underscored by the release of chilling pictures of Schleyer in captivity, the day's date on a sign around his neck. [That's much worse than panties on your head at Abu Ghraib, isn't it? Especially when they then shoot you in the end? Where's the outrage? -- ed.]

When the West German government of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt did not free Baader, Arab supporters hijacked a Lufthansa jet to Mogadishu, Somalia. German commandos freed the hostages, and the kidnappers killed Schleyer, whose body was found in the trunk of a car in Mulhouse, France. Baader and two other Red Army Faction members killed themselves in prison.

Before abandoning violence in 1992, the organization killed 34 people and injured hundreds.

AFP provides more info:

Schleyer was snatched from his car in Cologne in an attempt to blackmail the German government to release imprisoned Red Army Faction members.

His bodyguard, driver and two policemen were shot dead.

The black and white ransom photographs showing Schleyer in front of the group's symbol of a star and a Heckler and Koch machine pistol became one of the iconic images of what become known as the "German Autumn".

Schleyer was found shot dead in the boot of a car in a wood in eastern France.

But wait, there's more good news!

Another prominent Red Army Faction member, Christian Klar, is awaiting the outcome of a plea to German President Horst Koehler to be pardoned.

Klar and Mohnhaupt were leaders of a second generation of RAF members who carried out the campaign of violence after Baader and Meinhof committed suicide following their capture in 1972.

Soon they'll be free and together again, like a storybook ending!

And the nice government is even pitching in to help:

The court said she would be assigned a social worker who will help her to re-adjust to life outside prison.

The heart warms.