As of: March 1, 2024, 1:52 p.m
By: Moritz Maier
Comments
Press
Split
He was on the trail of RAF terrorist Daniela Klette before the police caught her.
The journalist Khesrau Behroz tells of the strange search for a fugitive who poses in public.
Berlin - It's already spectacular news: A wanted RAF terrorist is caught in the middle of her Berlin apartment more than 30 years after her first suspected explosive attack.
What makes the case particularly strange is Khesrau Behroz.
By chance, the journalist discovered Daniela Klette and almost found her.
“It was a mixture of surprise and excitement.
None of us expected her to be found,” says Behroz in an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
about the moment when they realized that Klette had been caught.
The RAF terrorist up close: How the podcasters looked for Daniela Klette
The burdock that he and his colleagues from the podcast company “Undone” had been looking for for three months for the
ARD
production “Most Wanted: Where is RAF terrorist Daniele Klette?”
“We immediately wrote to each other and asked whether Daniela Klette was the person we had become so close to in Berlin.”
Three RAF members on a BKA wanted list.
In the middle: Daniela Klette, who is now in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
Next to her are RAF colleagues Ernst-Volker Staub (left) and Burkhard Garweg (right).
© BKA
During their research, Behroz and his team came across a woman in a Berlin Capoeira club, a martial art.
They were unable to finally confirm whether this woman was the terrorist they were looking for.
Until her arrest was reported.
“When there was talk of a Capoeira club in the news, we realized that it was the same woman,” says Behroz in an interview.
“To see how close we were, we didn’t expect that.
And with comparatively little effort.”
The search for the RAF terrorist was a coincidence
The podcast, which appeared in December last year, was a coincidence, says the journalist.
Although there was still an official search for Burdock, the now 65-year-old was hardly on anyone's radar anymore.
Neither does Behroz.
“The origin was a listener who contacted us.
He said he met a woman at a party in Cologne who claimed to be a wanted RAF terrorist.
She pointed to a wanted poster and said, 'That's me'."
“We actually wanted to tell the story about the listener Sebastian, ask whether that could be true, and show how journalists research such a case.
And we knew that this could be a story about failure because we couldn’t find the woman,” says Behroz.
So they started looking.
The listener's tip quickly became a dead end.
Which in retrospect turned out to be a stroke of luck.
The podcast team then sought help from a facial recognition software expert.
My news
Expert discovers two pithy statements in Putin's speech that hardly anyone noticed
Ukraine Succeeds in Fierce Blow with HIMARS: Russian Soldiers Die During Their Ceremony Reading
Reveal secret service information?
Security expert horrified by Scholzlesen
38 mins ago
Navalny's body is now being buried: thousands of mourners shout "we do not forgive" - Putin's spokesman threatens to read
New asylum rule: In future, dental treatment will only be possible after three years - exception for Ukrainians
“Big worries” in the Red Sea: Frigate “Hessen” is probably suffering from a lack of ammunition
The search for Daniela Klette: (not) a story of failure
“When we were researching and the first lead went nowhere, we contacted Michael Colborne and sent Klette’s mugshots,” says Behroz.
Colborne is an investigative journalist with the international investigative collective
Bellingcat
.
“After half an hour he had a goal.
The face of a woman on the Capoeira Association website.” The AI system found current images and analyzed that it could be an older Daniela Klette.
The journalists visited the Berlin club and found more pictures of this woman.
However, club members told them that she had not been there since the corona pandemic.
The trail got lost.
The podcast is no longer a story of failure.
However, Behroz is a little annoyed and believes he could have gotten even closer to Klette - if there had been more time for the podcast.
“If we had had another week or two, we might have gotten even closer to the story.”
“A wanted RAF terrorist would never pose so openly in photos”
In one of the episodes, the journalist talks about what it would have been like to knock on Klette's door.
He almost succeeded, although he and his team never believed 100 percent that they would find the terrorist: “That is of course a completely crazy idea.” As a journalist, you naturally want to complete such research.
Behroz had doubts until the end because the woman in the Berlin dance sports club appeared so naturally in public.
Burdock even appeared dancing at public events.
“We also found her Facebook profile with her code name,” says Behroz.
Ultimately, the idea that this could be Daniela Klette was too absurd for them.
“We then thought to ourselves: a wanted RAF terrorist would never pose and appear so openly in photos.” She did.