Second Communiqué Regarding the Schleyer Kidnapping [1]
September 6th, 1977
On Monday, 5-09-77, the Commando Siegfried Hausner [2] took captive Hanns Martin
Schleyer, the President of the Federal Association of German Industries
and the President of the Employers Association. Regarding the
conditions for his release, we will repeat our first communiqué
to the Federal Government, which we
learnt yesterday has been withheld by the Security Staff. That is, all
attempts
to search for us must stop or Schleyer will immediately be shot. As
soon
as the search stops, Schleyer will be released under the following
conditions:
The prisoners of the RAF, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Jan
Carl Raspe, Verena Becker, Werner Hoppe, Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Hanna
Krabbe, Bernd Rössner, Ingrid Schubert, and Irmgard Möller,
will be released in
exchange for Schleyer, and will be sent to a country of their choice.
Günter
Sonnenberg, who since his arrest has been unfit for imprisonment due to
an
injury he suffered when shot, must be immediately released. The warrant
for
his arrest must be lifted. Günter will leave with the 10
prisoners,
with whom he must immediately be placed in contact with and allowed to
speak
to.
The prisoners must be assembled at 8am on Wednesday at the
Frankfurt Airport. They must be able to talk freely with each other as
much as necessary, until around 12 noon, regarding the details of their
departure. At 10am, one
of the prisoners will enter in direct communication with the Commando
via
German television to inform us of the agreed upon sequence of events
regarding
their departure.
For public control and to safeguard the lives of the prisoners
until they reach their destination, we propose that the prisoners be
accompanied by Payot, the General Secretary of the International
Federation of Human Rights
of the UNO, and Pastor Niemöller. We demand that it be done this
way
to assure that the prisoners arrive at their chosen destination alive.
Naturally,
we would agree to any alternative proposal from the prisoners.
Each prisoner will be given 100,000 DM.
This communiqué, which can be authenticated by Schleyer's
photo and his letter, must be published unedited and unfalsified this
evening on the 8:00 News.
We will establish the concrete details for the freeing of
Schleyer as soon as we have confirmation that the prisoners have been
freed, that they
won't be extradited, and when the Federal government releases a
statement guaranteeing that they won't pursue extradition.
We proceed from the perspective that Schmidt [3], having demonstrated in Stockholm how quickly he can
make decisions, will take the trouble to clarify his connection with
this greasy magnate of the cream of national business equally quickly.
Commando Siegfried Hausner
Red Army Faction - September 6th, 1977
Footnotes
N.B. All footnotes in this document were
added by the translator and editor. None are originally from the RAF.
[1] There were a total of 23 contacts made by the
Commando. Only the 2nd communiqué and the last communiqué
are generally available. [return to text]
[2] Siegfried Hausner - RAF member, died in
custody following injuries sustained during an occupation of the West
German
Embassy in Stockholm on April 24, 1975. Explosives laid by the Commando
were
detonated when police stormed the building. The Commando was demanding
the
release of 23 political prisoners held in West Germany. [return
to text]
[3] Helmut Schmidt - Chancellor and head of the
Parliamentary Section of the West German Social Democratic Party (SPD)
at the time this communiqué was released. [return
to text]
