Tough on Klar

Klar is one of the four RAF survivors still serving life terms for assassinations and bombings in the 1970s. German authorities recently decided to release Brigitte Mohnhaupt, another former RAF terrorist, on parole in March after 24 years in prison. Klar, who has been behind bars for the same amount of time, will not be eligible for parole until January 2009.

The 54-year-old has applied for clemency to German President Horst Köhler, who is expected to announce his decision later this year. Polls show a majority of Germans are opposed to his early release.

Justice officials had planned to begin preparing Klar soon for freedom with regular excursions outside prison under guard. But Ulrich Goll, the justice minister of the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, where Klar is incarcerated, suspended those plans on Wednesday because of the inmate's defiant attitude.

No change?

The decision comes after Klar sent a message to a conference organized by Marxist newspaper Junge Welt that condemned an "imperialist alliance" and "exploitation." His call for a "defeat of capitalism" was also published in the paper, but was not noticed by mainstream media at the time.

"This proclamation shows that nothing has happened in Klar's mind in all these years," said Waltrude Schleyer, whose husband Hanns Martin Schleyer, the head of the West German employers' federation, was killed by RAF members in 1977.

Goll said Klar's statement contradicted a criminologist's expert report suggesting that Klar had reformed. He called for a new report on Klar's state of mind.

While federal government officials have so far not commented on the case, German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann on Wednesday said he was against released Klar early.

"Mr. Klar has not shown any remorse and that's why it would be difficult to explain a pardon to the relatives of victims," he said.