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Motorcycle used in RAF killing turns up in private garage

A motorcycle secured a few days ago by police is likely the vehicle used by the leftist terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF) in the notorious shooting of West Germany's federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback in 1977.

Published: 11 October 2010 14:28 CEST

Motorcycle used in RAF killing turns up in private garage

Photo: DPA

Also known as the the Baader-Meinhof gang, the leftists killed Buback and two others when an unidentified gunman fired a spray of bullets at his chauffeured car on April 7 that year.

“The motorcycle in question is evidently the motorcycle used in the crime,” a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe said on Monday.

The find comes in the midst of a trial against former RAF member Verena Becker, who is accused of playing a role in the political assassination. She is not suspected of pulling the trigger, though Buback’s son has said he is convinced the 58-year-old was the shooter.

Other members of the group have already been convicted for the killing, but the actual murderer has never been identified.

Whether investigators will be able to find any DNA traces on the vehicle remains unclear, the spokesperson said.

“It’s being clarified as to whether today’s forensic methods can even secure traces relevant to the crime,” he said.

Police did initially secure the motorcycle, a 1977 Suzuki GS 750, shortly after the shooting. But after they completed their investigation, the vehicle was sold “because it was no longer needed as evidence.”

According to daily Pforzheimer Zeitung on Saturday, the vehicle was purchased in 1982 at a discounted price by a man in Böblingen county, who found it listed in a local paper.

The man has apparently not driven the motorcycle for the last 10 years.

Last week at Becker’s trial, a federal police investigator said that important court exhibits from the Buback murder trial – namely the motorcycle and the getaway car – had gone missing.

The Baader-Meinhof gang, named after its founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, attacked Buback in one of several RAF crimes staged in protest of what they saw as the oppressive West German state. The bloody era came to be known as the “German Autumn.”

DAPD/DPA/ka

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Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

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