Cohn-Bendit terrorist probe

Date: 08/05/03

By Martin Banks

GREENS' co-leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit could face charges over his alleged links with a German terrorist following a request to the

European Parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution. MEPs will consider the request, from the state attorney's office in Frankfurt, later this month.

German authorities are investigating Cohn-Bendit's connections to Hans-Joachim Klein, who was jailed for nine years in 2001 for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping.

The charges related to a 1975 terrorist ambush at a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna. Klein escaped to Algeria with gang-leader Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal", who is now serving time in France.

Klein, 54, who was finally cornered in a small village in Normandy where he had been living under a false name, had been a member of the Revolutionary Cells which, along with the Baader-Meinhof gang, gained considerable notoriety in Germany in the 1970s. His political comrades at the time included Joschka Fischer, now Germany's foreign minister, and Cohn-Bendit, the notorious flame-haired "soixante-huitard" who played a leading role in the Paris student uprising, later sharing a flat with Fischer.

At the time of Klein's arrest, Cohn-Bendit reportedly admitted he had known of his whereabouts and helped him with money. But the state prosecutor's office in

Frankfurt is investigating allegations by a German Liberal politician that Cohn-Bendit in fact harboured Klein in France during the 1970s and 80s.

Cohn-Bendit, who now lives in Frankfurt with his wife and son, told European Voice that the request for his immunity to be lifted was "politically motivated" and designed to undermine his position ahead of the European Parliament elections in 2004. "I am not particularly worried by this because I do not think it will go anywhere," he added.

The request is due to be heard by the Parliament's legal affairs committee later this month. One committee member said it was possible that it would agree to a partial lifting of immunity to "allow the authorities to question Cohn-Bendit and launch an investigation but do no more at this stage".

The immunity application is the latest twist in the 58-year-old's colourful career. Expelled from France for his role in the 1968 Paris student revolt, "Dany le Rouge" then joined the pacifist German Green movement, entering mainstream politics in 1971 as Frankfurt's deputy mayor.

A holder of dual nationality (his parents were German Jews who fled to France to escape Nazi persecution), he is the only MEP ever to be elected in two countries - in 1994 as a member of the German Greens and in 1999 as head of the French Greens' list.

MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit could face charges over his alleged links with a German terrorist following a request to the European Parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution.