German president refuses to pardon left-wing militant

BERLIN, May 7 (Reuters) German President Horst Koehler today rejected a pardon for Christian Klar, a former member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) who has spent over 24 years in prison for his part in killings that shook West Germany in the 1970s.

For months German media have given heavy exposure to Klar's bid for clemency, questioning whether the country is ready to draw a line under the bloody campaign of murders and kidnappings that still haunt the public consciousness.

Also known as the ''Baader-Meinhof Gang'' after founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the militantly left wing RAF is believed to have killed 34 people, including senior industry leaders and public officials, between 1970 and 1991.

''The president has decided not to grant clemency to Christian Klar,'' Koehler's office said in a statement today.

Klar will be eligible for parole in 2009.

The office said Koehler had also rejected a plea for clemency by Birgit Hogefeld, an RAF militant who was convicted in 1996 of the murder of US soldier Edward Pimental in Wiesbaden in 1985. She has been in prison since 1993.

Unlike Klar, Hogefeld has publicly shown remorse for her crimes, and Koehler said her plea could yet be reconsidered.

A court convicted Klar of nine murders and 11 counts of attempted murder in 1985. Among those murdered were Hanns Martin Schleyer, chief of Germany's employers' federation, and Juergen Ponto, the head of Dresdner Bank, both in 1977.

Koehler's office said the rejection was based on the opinions of legal experts, prison authorities and a criminal assessment of Klar, who is 54 years old. Koehler also met Klar personally and held talks with relatives of the RAF's victims.

Koehler's meeting with Klar on Friday sparked an outcry among some conservatives, who threatened to oppose his re-election for a second term in office if he granted a pardon.

Those who opposed clemency argued that Klar had expressed no remorse for his deeds and done nothing to help clear up RAF crimes that peaked during the infamous ''German Autumn'' of 1977.

Hubertus Heil, general secretary of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) said Koehler's decision should be respected, but did not offer any judgement on it. Conservatives applauded it.

Guido Westerwelle, head of the opposition Free Democrats (FDP), a party which had criticised the president for his meeting with Klar, hailed today's decision.

''Any serial killer who fails to show remorse and doesn't help to shed light on his crimes should not be given a pardon,'' Westerwelle said in the northwestern city of Bremen.

German police have never been able to establish exactly which members carried out a number of the individual killings.

Last month Germany reopened an investigation into the RAF murder of federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback in 1977 following allegations by a former group member that a court had pinned the shooting on the wrong men. Klar was among those convicted.

REUTERS RS RK2050