Four women flee gaol

Press, 8 July 1976, Page 6

Four women flee gaol

NZPA West Berlin Four women prisoners held in connection with anarchist crimes, and including one whose release was demanded by the pro-Palestinian guerrillas in the Entebbe hijack drama, escaped from a West Berlin prison early yesterday. They scaled the wall of the Lehrter Strasse prison for women with sheets knotted together, after overpowering two warders and threatening them at gunpoint. A police hunt was launched for the four, Gabrielle Rollnick, Inge Viett, Juliane Plambeck, and Monika Berberich.

At least one gun was used by the women in their escape. Inge Viett, aged 31, was one of the prisoners whose release was demanded by the Entebbe hijackers last week. Viett, Gabrielle Rollnick, and Juliane Plambeck were awaiting trial in connection with the kidnapping of the Christian Democratic Union

leader, Mr Peter Lorenz, in February, 1975. Monika Berberich is a convicted bank robber. A police spokesman said Plambeck, in particular, was very dangerous. Apart from Plambeck’s being suspected of taking part in the abduction of Mr Lorenz, a warrant was issued against her on Monday on suspicion of murdering West Berlin’s chief judge, Guenter von Drenkmann, in November, 1974, he said. Mr Hermann Oxfort, a senior city official responsible for justice, said: “The assault was excellently planned and executed.’’

First investigations showed that the women had outside help and possibly also help from within the prison. The police found spikes thrown down on the road outside the prison walls to prevent a car chase. Mr Oxfort said that for security reasons, all four were being held in cells on the same prison floor.