With the alias Martin

RAF terrorist helped a lady, went begging in the evening

(Bild: APA/dpa/Caroline Bock)

Suddenly the search for the alleged RAF terrorists in Germany has picked up speed again. More and more details are now becoming known about the man who is apparently being closely tracked down. He is said to have helped an old woman as a neighbor during the day and then went begging at a tourist hotspot in the evening.

The wanted Burkhard Garweg apparently did not indulge in great luxury in recent decades. As was recently revealed, the now 55-year-old is believed to have last lived in a construction trailer.

Homeless people report explosive details
As the German newspaper "Bild" reported on Wednesday evening, however, this is just one piece of the puzzle in the life of the suspected terrorist - he is said to have begged on Berlin's Oberbaumbrücke in Friedrichshain. Several homeless people are said to have recognized him from pictures.

According to the beggars, the last time he was there was about a week and a half ago. Although he was a very taciturn person, he is said to have revealed his identity to one of the homeless people interviewed: "He said that he used to be in the Red Army Faction," the newspaper quotes him as saying. Another person insinuated that he had a cocaine problem.

Burkhard Garweg went into hiding around 30 years ago. His life since then has probably not been particularly comfortable.

(Bild: APA/AFP/LANDESKRIMINALANT LOWER SAXONY/Handout)

A special task force recently searched an apartment in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. However, according to the police, there was no suspect there.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Caroline Bock)

Garweg apparently took care of senior citizen
But it is not only the homeless people who provide clues to the man's whereabouts. According to neighbors, Garweg is said to have looked after an elderly lady in Friedrichshain under the alias Martin. As reported by Der Spiegel, investigators assume that he repeatedly visited the woman in her apartment. He had gone shopping for the woman and even had a key to the apartment while she was in hospital for a short time.

According to the report, nobody recognized him in the house at first, only afterwards after the police had published mugshots. It was unclear whether he had received money for this. In any case, the emergency services gained access to the apartment in question on Monday morning - but no suspicious person was found.

New momentum in the search for terrorists in hiding
Daniela Klette (65), the first suspected terrorist to go into hiding, was arrested in Berlin-Kreuzberg on February 26 after a 30-year search. Together with Garweg and Ernst-Volker Wilhelm Staub (69), she belonged to the so-called third generation of the left-wing extremist terrorist organization Red Army Faction, which carried out numerous attacks and killed people until 1991. In 1998, the RAF declared itself disbanded.

Klette, Staub and Garweg are wanted on suspicion of involvement in terrorist attacks. Between 1999 and 2016, they are also alleged to have robbed cash transporters and supermarkets in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia in order to obtain money. They are also accused of attempted murder because shots were fired in the process.