‘Lawyers could have smuggled guns to guerrillas in pieces’

Press, 27 October 1977, Page 8

‘Lawyers could have smuggled guns to guerrillas in pieces’

International

NZPA-Reuter Stuttgart The Government of the state of BadenWuerttemberg has said that defence lawyers could have smuggled guns and explosives into the top-security Stuttgart jail where three guerrilla leaders died last week.

But a preliminary Government report admitted that the authorities could not prove that this had been the case. The inquiry was set up to investigate security aspects of the deaths in Stammheim Prison last Tuesday of Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe, and Gudrun Ensslin. An international panel of forensic science experts has concluded that the three committed suicide, apparently shortly after learning that West German commandos had rescued hostages held on a hijacked Lufthansa plane at Mogadishu. The rescue foiled a plot to have them and 10 other jailed urban guerrillas freed. The experts said Baader and Raspe shot themselves through the head in their cells and that Ensslin hanged herself. But the latest report, submitted to the State Parliament, provided little concrete evidence to clear up the mystery of how the two men obtained the pistols with which they are said to have taken their own lives. Earlier West Germany paid its last respects to the business leader, Dr HannsMartin Schleyer, killed by guerrilla kidnappers who had

held him captive for nearly seven weeks.

The kidnappers, like the hijackers of the Lufthansa jet, had demanded the release of the jailed guerrillas. The 38-page report said it could not be excluded that defence lawyers had smuggled weapons and other objects into Stammheim Prison, perhaps in little pieces. Some newspaper articles have said that the gun with which Baader, who was 34, was killed consisted of more than 40 parts from w’hich he assembled the weapon himself. Controls on visiting defence attorneys could not be guaranteed since women lawyers and prisoners were not completely stripped during the checks, the State Government report added.

It said that prison warders at Stammheim, supposediv one of the most tightly guarded jails in West Germany, might not have carried out the checks rigorously enough because they had been slandered and threatened by imprisoned BaaderMeinhof urban guerrilla group members for years. The report did not elaborate on this point. In addition to the guns.

found beside the bodies of Baader and Raspe, officials said searches of cells in Stammheim after the deaths yielded enough high explosives to demolish walls. A secret communications system was also found, tliev said. The suicides and discoveries at the prison led to the resignation of the BadenWuerttemberg Justice Minister (Mr Horst Bender) and the dismissal of Stammheim’s top two officials. West Germany has paid an emotional farewell to the business leader. Dr HannsMartin Schleyer. killed bv urban guerrilla kidnappers who had held him for nearly seven weeks. His body was found in the boot of a car in Mulhouse. France, a week ago. The kidnappers had demanded the release of 11 imprisoned urban guerrillas, including Baader. Raspe. and Ensslin, a demand reinforced by the hijackers

The West German authorities have issued the descriptions of 16 urban guerrillas wanted for the murder of Dr Schleyer and for the killings earlier this year of the German Federal Prosecutor, Mr Siegfried Buback, and a banker, Dr Juergen Ponto.