East Germany Arrests Suspect in GI’s Slaying
East German authorities captured a reputed leftist terrorist linked to the 1985 bombing of a U.S. air base in West Germany and the deaths of three Americans, officials said Saturday.
Sigrid Sternebeck, 40, became the seventh alleged member of the notorious Red Army Faction to be captured in East Germany in the last 11 days.
The string of arrests is the result of a recent push by officials in both German states to locate long-sought terrorist suspects who received sanctuary under East Germany’s former Communist regime.
The arrest was reported during the night by East German authorities through the government news agency ADN and confirmed by West German federal police spokesman Hans-Juergen Foerster.
Sternebeck is charged with the slaying of U.S. Army soldier Edward Pimental in Wiesbaden, West Germany, on Aug. 8, 1985, Foerster said.
He said West Germany would seek the extradition of Sternebeck, who is charged in a warrant with murder and attempted murder. Sternebeck did not resist when she was arrested in the town of Schwedt, ADN said.
Pimental was killed so terrorists could obtain his identity card and gain entry by car to the U.S. air base at Frankfurt, West Germany, Foerster said. The car was rigged with explosives and detonated near the headquarters of the base, where it killed two other Americans and injured 20.
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