Red Army Faction member faces 15 years for bomb attack

THE last member of the notorious Red Army Faction terrorist group to go on trial is to appear in court in Germany next month accused of a car bomb attack on a group of Russian Jews in Hungary more than a decade ago.

Andrea Klump is accused of attempting to murder 33 people, including 29 Jewish emigrants, on behalf of a radical Palestinian group near the Hungarian capital Budapest, in 1991.

Investigators say they have only recently been able to charge Klump, who is already serving a nine-year sentence for terrorism, with the crimes because of new DNA evidence against her.

However her lawyer, Wolfgang Kronauer, said Klump had denied all the charges that she was facing.

Kronauer said: "My client denies having anything to do with the planning, preparation and implementation of the attack."

In the Hungarian attack 13 years ago, 25kg of high explosives were hidden in a parked car on the road to Budapest Airport, which was set to be donated as the bus passed by, using a home-made radio device.

But investigators say the remote control may have been faulty as the bomb went off a few seconds early - a fault that possibly saved the lives of all who were on board.

Six people were injured when the bomb went off, including two Hungarians travelling in a police car ahead of the bus and four of the bus’s passengers, which was carrying 29 Jewish emigrants heading either to Israel or the West. Two escorts were also on board.

Klump, who faces charges of 33 counts of attempted murder and an explosives offence, faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. The 46-year-old is currently serving a nine-year sentence in Germany imposed in May 2001 for attempting to set off a bomb at a Nato base in Rota, Spain, in June 1988.

She admitted to the Rota bombing, which was also carried out on behalf of the Palestinian group, following her capture and arrest in Vienna in 1999.

Klump was caught in the Austrian capital with her boyfriend, Horst Ludwig Meyer, who was also involved in both the Hungarian and Spanish bombings.

Meyer was shot dead by police during the couple’s arrest, but Klump was taken alive and extradited from Austria to Germany, where the law allows German nationals to be charged for acts committed on foreign soil. Klump was also wanted on charges of membership of a terrorist organisation, but these lesser charges were dropped.

The Red Army Faction was a German urban guerrilla group that terrorised the country three decades ago. It was linked with terror organisations in East Germany and the Middle East during its 28-year campaign of violence, during which dozens were killed.

Prosecutors expect Klump will be the last member of the faction to go on trial for crimes committed in its name.

She will face a hearing on April 22 with the case expected to last until September.