Alleged Jackal aide 'sought 007 lifestyle'

FRANKFURT, Germany -- An alleged comrade of infamous terrorist Carlos "The Jackal" was seduced into carrying out criminal acts by the promise of a "James Bond" lifestyle, a court has heard.

Hans-Joachim Klein is on trial in Germany facing charges in connection with an assault in December 1975 on the OPEC conference in Vienna, Austria.

He is charged with killing three people and the attempted murder of three others when a six-member gang, led by Carlos, seized 70 hostages, including 11 oil ministers in 1975.

On Thursday, a prominent German politician and former friend of Klein's in the 1960s, described Klein as a disturbed, aggressive man who regarded "The Jackal" as a heroic figure, similar to 007, the fictional British spy.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Member of the European Parliament and member of the German Green Party, told the court that Klein, 52, had been a leader of student protests in the 1960s whose left-wing circle of friends included Joschka Fischer, Germany's current Foreign Minister.

"Carlos must have influenced Klein as a real-life James Bond," Cohn-Bendit said.

"He saw it as a James Bond-like world with contacts with secret services and visits to Arab palaces.

"If you were with Carlos and received by people like Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi , then you were really someone."

The 1975 hostage raid, in which two bodyguards and a delegate died, was the most notorious attack by Venezuelan-born Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.

Ramirez was captured in Sudan in 1994 and taken to France, where a court convicted him in 1997 for the murder of two French secret agents and an informer in 1975. He is now serving a life sentence.

Klein was shot and seriously injured in the stomach during the kidnapping, but was treated and allowed to fly to Algiers with his accomplices and their hostages.

He later took refuge in Libya but was extradited from France last year, 23 years after German authorities first sought him.

The case continues. A verdict is not expected before late next month.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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German Courts
Carlos The Jackal
OPEC

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