Another terrorist dies in her cell

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 1

Another terrorist dies in her cell

NZPA Munich A fourth jailed terrorist, whose release was demanded last month by air hijackers and the kidnappers of a prominent industrialist, committed suicide in her cell on Saturday, officials said.

Ingrid Schubert, aged 33, who was serving 13 years for attempted murder and bank robbery was found hanging by a bedsheet from her cell-win-dow bars in Stadelheim Prison, in Munich. Mr Reinhold Beck, a spokesman for the Bavarian Ministry of Justice, said early yesterday that an autopsy performed a few hours after her death brought forth no evidence that opposed the belief it was suicide. Schubert, a former member of the Red Army Faction, died almost a month after three other faction terrorists — Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe — were found dead or dying in their cells at Stammheim Prison near Stuttgart. Their deaths, which the authorities also termed suicide, came hours after West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jet on October 18 in Mogadishu, Somalia, and freed 85 passengers and crew held hostage for the release of 11 jailed German terrorists. Three of the four hijackers were killed in the

attack, and the fourth was wounded. Leftist extremists throughout Western Europe said that Baader, Ensslin, and Raspe were murdered by the police. Schubert’s death appeared likely to raise the same charge.

The hijackers were believed to be working with the kidnappers of the industrialist. Mr HannsMartin Schleyer. grabbed on September 5 in Cologne by the Red Army Faction. His abductors demanded the release of the same 11 terrorists.

Mr Schleyer was found shot to death in the boot of a car in Mulhouse, Eastern France, the day after the hijacking was foiled. One suspect, Christop Wackernagel, has been arrested in the kidnap slaying and 15 others are being sought.

Mr Beck said that the autopsy, conducted at a University of Munich clinic, established that Schubert, a former medical assistant, died from violent action against the neck as with a typical hanging. The investigators, led by Dr Wolfgang Spann, of the International Academy for Court Medicine, found no cliie indicating foreign action, he said. According to Mr Beck, Schubert’s lawyer, Mr Harmut Waechtler, was present during the autopsy.

Mr Franz Neubauer, a senior official in the Bavarian Ministry of Justice, said Schubert was checked in her cell by guards at 6.30 p.m. When the guards returned about 7.10 p.m. they found her dead. Mr Neubauer said. Officials had no idea of Schubert’s motive, he said. But another official speculated that she might have become despondent over Wackernagel’s arrest in Amsterdam earlier in the week. No suicide note was found, a spokesman said. Mr Heubauer said that security for imprisoned terrorists had been strengthened after the suicides of Baader and the others at Stammheim, and that the prisoners were inspected by guards hourly. Like other jailed terrorists, Schubert was denied visitors or any contact with the outside world while the Schleyer kidnapping and the hijacking were in progress. The extra restrictions, under which prisoners were denied contact with family or their lawyers, were' lifted last month after Mr Schleyer’s body was found. Schubert had been confined at Stammheim with Baader and the others from June 25 to August 18, when she was transferred to the Munich prison.