Hans Joachim Klein, a member of the West German Baader-Meinhoff gang and aide to the notorious terrorist known as “Carlos,” was reported today by a French newspaper as hiding in an Israeli kibbutz in the Negev. According to the morning daily L’Aurore, the Israeli secret police agreed to hide him in exchange for information he had given them on West German and Arab terrorist groups. The paper claimed that Klein told Israeli secret police that since his mother is Jewish he was entitled to asylum in Israel under the Law of Return. Israeli sources in Paris stressed they had no knowledge of Klein’s whereabouts.
(In Jerusalem, the Ministry of Interior and police officials termed the newspaper story a hoax. The Ministry said it checked its population registry and border patrol files but that neither his name nor anyone resembling him was on any file. Nevertheless, police and security agents began an intensive investigation on the request of Interpol.)
According to L’Aurore, Klein is in hiding from the West German police and his fellow terrorists who feel he betrayed them. According to the story, Klein provided detailed information about Arab terrorist training bases in Iraq and South Yemen and about planned terrorist activities against the Jewish communities in Berlin and Frankfurt. This information, the paper said, forestalled the terrorist acts.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
