Suspect Named in Slaying of Key W. German Banker : Terrorism: Prosecutors implicate fugitive Red Army Faction guerrilla Christoph Seidler in car bomb attack.
FRANKFURT, West Germany — West German authorities today named a Red Army Faction guerrilla as one of two main suspects linked to the murder of banker Alfred Herrhausen.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe said police were searching for two men seen at the site of the car bombing Thursday that killed Herrhausen, 59, chief executive of West Germany’s largest bank.
“One of these two persons could, according to witness reports, be RAF (Red Army Faction) member Christoph Seidler,†the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
A Hamburg court in 1981 convicted Seidler of supporting the leftist Red Army Faction, which claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.
Seidler has been a fugitive for several years. His name routinely appears on a wanted poster of two dozen leftist terrorists that is displayed in West German post offices and other public places, said prosecutor’s spokesman Hans-Juergen Foerster.
He said Seidler also was sought in a bank robbery in 1985.
The two men observed at the scene were described by authorities earlier as wearing jogging suits and earphones.
Authorities have offered a $2.2 million reward for the capture of Herrhausen’s killers.
The prosecutor’s office said Red Army Faction guerrillas had apparently planned the attack for four to five weeks. Herrhausen’s Mercedes car was blown apart in the remote-controlled blast.
“Near the area of the attack wires had been buried in the asphalt,†Chief Federal Prosecutor Kurt Rebmann said. “The asphalt had been chiseled out up to nearby bushes, and after the wires were laid filled in again,†he said.
Rebmann said the terrorists took care to tint new asphalt poured over the wires the same as the rest of the 4-foot-wide sidewalk to make the work unnoticeable.
Prosecutor’s spokesman Foerster told West German radio the two suspects appeared to have fled the scene in a getaway car found later in Frankfurt.
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