Verena Becker

While a student, Becker initially joined Movement 2 June (J2M) and was involved in bank robberies{{Cite news|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/ex-raf-terroristin-verena-becker-versteckt-zwischen-sonnenblumen-1548344.html|title = Ex-RAF-Terroristin Verena Becker: Versteckt zwischen Sonnenblumen|newspaper = Faz.net|last1 = Stuberger|first1 = Ulf G.}} and the bombing of a British yacht club in West Berlin on 2 February 1972. J2M claimed this bombing was in support of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Becker was subsequently arrested and on 13 February 1974 she was tried and found guilty of involvement in the bombing. She was sentenced to six years in prison; a year later, she was freed and flown to Aden in Southern Yemen as part of the exchange deal proposed by the Peter Lorenz kidnappers.Becker, Jillian. Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang, DIANE Publishing Company 1998, {{ISBN|0-7881-5472-9}} or Panther edition 1978, {{ISBN|0-586-04665-8}}, Page. 334

At some point between 1975 and 1976, Becker returned to West Germany. She became involved in the second generation RAF re-grouped around Siegfried Haag, and it is likely that she came in contact with him whilst in Yemen, as he was there at the same time.

In Singen, May 1977, Becker and fellow terrorist Günter Sonnenberg were spotted by police. Alarmed, Becker and Sonnenberg tried to flee. A gunfight ensued which left two police officers badly wounded. Sonnenberg and Becker attempted to drive off in a stolen vehicle, only to drive into a dead-end street. They abandoned the vehicle and ran, but were shot down and arrested. Sonnenberg was seriously injured by a gunshot wound to the head, and Becker was shot in the leg. A submachine gun was found in their abandoned car. It turned out to be the gun used to assassinate Chief Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback.

In late 1977 Becker was sentenced to life imprisonment{{Cite web |url=http://labourhistory.net/raf/chronology.php |title=Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) Documents |access-date=2013-12-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205050232/http://labourhistory.net/raf/chronology.php |archive-date=2013-12-05 |url-status=dead }} for her involvement in a criminal organisation. In prison she took part in hunger strikes and was force-fed.{{cite web|url=http://www.germanguerilla.com/red-army-faction/raf_timeline.html |title=Armed Struggle in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1967-1988 |access-date=August 21, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223358/http://www.germanguerilla.com/red-army-faction/raf_timeline.html |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }}

She was released from prison in 1989 after being pardoned by Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker. She lived anonymously in Germany, under an assumed name.

On 7 April 1977, Siegfried Buback, then the chief federal prosecutor for the Bundesgerichtshof, was shot and killed alongside his driver Wolfgang Göbel and a passenger, judicial officer Georg Wurster, by members of the RAF while travelling from his home in Neureut to the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe; while Buback's Mercedes was stopped at a traffic light a motorcycle pulled alongside and the passenger on the rear of the motorcycle opened fire with an semiautomatic weapon at the vehicle. There is some evidence{{Cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,478928,00.html|title = Who Assassinated Siegfried Buback?: Germany Revisits RAF Terrorism Verdict}} suggesting that Becker took part in the assassination of Buback, though she herself claims Stefan Wisniewski was the one who killed him. DNA evidence however indicates that Becker probably did not take part in the killing.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3506492,00.html|title = DNA Tests Rule Out Buback Murder Suspect | DW | 23.07.2008}} The case has been reopened{{in lang|de}}Prantl, Heribert: [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt1l4/deutschland/artikel/76/110965/ Wisniewski? Stefan Wisniewski?] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008233759/http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt1l4/deutschland/artikel/76/110965/ |date=October 8, 2007 }}. Süddeutsche Zeitung online. Accessed January 3, 2008. and Becker was re-arrested on charges relating to the assassination on 28 August 2009.{{Cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,645639,00.html|title=Fall Buback: Ex-RAF-Terroristin Becker festgenommen}} In April 2010, following examination of DNA on a letter claiming responsibility for the murder, she was charged for the 1977 murder.{{Cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/10/2869272.htm?section=justin|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100430171253/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/10/2869272.htm?section=justin|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 30, 2010|title=German gang member charged with 1977 murder|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=10 April 2010}} In July 2012, she was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of Buback and sentenced to four years in prison.{{cite news|title=Red Army Faction militant Becker jailed for 1977 murder|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18739872|access-date=2 June 2016|work=BBC News|date=6 July 2012|ref=BBC6612|language=en-GB}}

Some observers, chiefly former fellow member of the Movement 2 June Bommi Baumann contend that Becker had been an informant of the West German intelligence since at least 1972.{{Cite web|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/deutschland/raf/RAF-Verena-Becker-Siegfried-Buback;art15468,2888106|title=Dubiose Stasi-Akte über Verena Becker}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/09/04/Terrorist-on-German-spy-service-payroll/UPI-13751252094675/|title = Terrorist on German spy service payroll}}{{clarify|date=June 2015}}

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Category:1952 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Wilmersdorf

Category:German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment

Category:Members of the 2 June Movement

Category:Members of the Red Army Faction

Category:People convicted on terrorism charges

Category:Recipients of German presidential pardons

Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany