W. German Terrorist Suspect Seized in E. Berlin

EAST BERLIN â€”  One of West Germany’s most-wanted terrorist suspects, linked to the slayings of a prominent banker and a wealthy industrialist, has been captured, officials said Thursday.

Susanne Albrecht, 39, a member of the notorious Red Army Faction terrorist group, was captured Wednesday afternoon in front of her apartment in East Berlin, East Germany’s interior minister said.

The minister, Peter-Michael Diestel, said Albrecht has been living in East Berlin for the last 10 years under an assumed name and is married to an East German.

Albrecht is accused of killing Juergen Ponto, former head of West Germany’s Dresdner Bank, outside his home in July, 1977, in the West German city of Oberursel, just north of Frankfurt. Albrecht was an acquaintance of the Ponto family.

She is also wanted in connection with the kidnaping and killing of West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer.

Schleyer, the president of West Germany’s Employers and Trade Assn., was kidnaped Sept. 5, 1977, when two of his bodyguards were cut down in a hail of bullets on a Cologne street.

He was held by the Red Army Faction for six weeks before being slain.

Diestel said that Albrecht arrived in East Germany in 1980, became a citizen and lived there for eight years with her husband and child.

He did not name the country, but a West German magazine, Quick, said Albrecht had recently lived in Syria.

Albrecht returned to East Germany last Sunday, apparently to change her East German marks into West German marks in advance of the July 1 economic union between the two Germanys.

Th West German tabloid Bild said Albrecht has been in the Soviet Union and was an operative for East Germany’s former secret police.

It said she was exposed when the vast files of the former secret police network were examined by the country’s new democratic government.

BACKGROUND

The Red Army Faction, a spinoff of the ultraleftist Baader-Meinhof gang, got its start in the 1970s with a series of arson and bombing attacks, mainly against U.S. military targets, in what it said was retaliation for the Vietnam War. It later broadened its attacks, staging bombings and slayings of West German industrial and banking leaders. About 25 Red Army Faction members are still being sought. The Bonn Interior Ministry says there are also about 250 sympathizers who provide hideouts and other support for gang members.