German prosecutor reopens 70s guerrilla murder case

BERLIN, Apr 25 (Reuters) Germany has reopened an investigation into a high-profile 30-year old murder by leftist Red Army Faction (RAF) guerrillas following allegations by a former member that the wrong man was convicted of the crime.

Federal prosecutor Monika Harms told a news conference in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe that her office had launched a preliminary inquiry to find out whether former RAF member Stefan Wisniewski may have murdered Siegfried Buback in a drive-by attack in April 1977.

Buback, who held the same top prosecutor job as Harms at the time, was one of the most prominent victims of a two-decades long campaign of kidnappings and killings by the RAF that still haunt the country.

Also known as the ''Baader-Meinhof Gang'' after founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the RAF is suspected of killing 34 people between 1970 and 1991. It disbanded in 1998.

Buback was ambushed in his car in Karlsruhe on April 7, 1977 by two men on a motorcycle, who then fled to a getaway car driven by a third RAF guerrilla.

Three RAF members -- Christian Klar, Guenter Sonnenberg and Knut Folkerts -- were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the murder, although authorities were never able to pin down who fired the shots because the group refused to talk.

Peter-Juergen Boock, who spent 17 years in jail for his own role in the RAF, broke that silence in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine over the weekend, saying he believed Wisniewski and not Folkerts had been on the motorcycle and shot Buback.

Rainer Griesbaum, head of the terrorism section of the prosecutor's office, told reporters that despite the new investigation there was no reason to doubt the validity of the original convictions.

''Based on the information that we currently have, there is no concrete evidence implicating Stefan Wisniewski,'' he said.

Wisniewski served roughly 20 years in prison for other RAF-related crimes before being released in March 1999. He could face a new trial in connection with the Buback murder if new evidence arose suggesting he was involved.

The conduct of German authorities in the case is also in question following suggestions they may have withheld information in pursuing the convictions decades ago.

A furious debate about the Buback case has surfaced just as President Horst Koehler mulls a pardon for Klar, one of only three RAF members still in prison.

Polls show Germans are evenly divided on whether Klar, who has spent over 24 years behind bars for his role in various murders, should go free.

REUTERS ABM BD1935