German Who Knew Fischer Is Sentenced for ’75 Attack

FRANKFURT, Germany — A former terrorist who knew Germany’s foreign minister during the politician’s youthful anti-establishment days was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment Thursday for killing three people in a 1975 attack on an OPEC meeting.

The case has forced Germans to address the social unrest that rocked their country three decades ago--in particular, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who has been on the defensive over his well-known past as a left-wing activist who wrangled with police.

Hans-Joachim Klein, who renounced terrorism shortly after the attack on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, sat with his head bowed and his arms crossed as Judge Heinrich Gehrke read his sentence of nine years on three counts each of murder, attempted murder and hostage-taking.

“Whoever thinks this is too light must think of everyone who was involved,” Gehrke said. “He alone has been sentenced, although he played the smallest role and was the only one who distanced himself from terrorism.”

Klein, 53, had admitted to the court that he took part in the attack on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, but he denied killing anyone. Although murder carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in Germany, prosecutors sought 14 years; the defense pleaded for eight.

Since Klein was jailed 18 months in France while waiting to be extradited, the German citizen will have to serve only 7 1/2 years.

Gehrke also said that Klein received a lighter sentence because he gave the court information about the other members of the group that organized the attack--allegedly led by Venezuelan terrorist “Carlos the Jackal,” whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.

Fischer, who went on to become a prominent member of the Greens party and a Cabinet minister, testified last month about his role in the militant era, insisting that he had urged Klein to renounce violence.