German president: No clemency for Red Army Faction terrorist convicted of murdering US soldier

German president: No clemency for terrorist

BERLIN — Germany’s president says he has rejected a request for clemency from a leftist terrorist serving a life sentence for the murder of a U.S. soldier and the deadly bombing of an American base.

President Horst Koehler said Monday he decided not to grant Birgit Hogefeld early release after personally hearing her plea.

Hogefeld was a member of the Red Army Faction terrorist organization.

According to testimony at her 1996 trial, she lured an American soldier out of a disco in 1985 to obtain his military ID. He was later found shot in the head in nearby woods.

The ID card was then used to get a car packed with explosives onto the U.S. Air Force Rhine-Main Air Base in an attack that killed two and injured 20 others.