SAWIO Ultimatum

To the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany

this is to inform you that the passengers and the crew of the lh737 plane, flight no. 181 leaving from Palma to Frankfurt, are under our complete control and responsibility. the lives of the passengers and the crew of the plane as well as the life of Mr. Hanns-Martin Schleyer depends on your fulfilling the following—

  1. Release of the following comrades of the raf from prisons in West Germany—Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Jan-Carl Raspe, Verena Becker, Werner Hoppe, Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Hanna Krabbe, Bernd Roessner, Ingrid Schubert, Irmgard Moeller, Guenter Sonnenberg—and with each the amount of dm100,000.
  2. Release of the following Palestinian comrades of pflp from prison in Istanbul—Mahdi and Hussein.
  3. The payment of the sum of $15 million U.S. dollars according to accompanying instructions.
  4. Arrange with any one of the following countries to accept to receive all the comrades released from prison:
  5. Democratic Republic of Vietnam
  6. Republic of Somalia
  7. People’s Democratic Republic of Jemen
  8. The german prisoners should be transported by plane, which you should provide, to their point of destination. they should fly via Istanbul to take in the two Palestinian comrades released from Istanbul prison.

the turkish government is well informed about our demands.

the prisoners should all together reach their point of destination before Sunday, 16th of Oct. 1977, 8.00 o’clock a.m. gmt.

the money should be delivered according to accompanying instructions within the same period of time.

  1. If all the prisoners are not released and do not reach their point of destination, and the money is not delivered according to instructions, within the specified time, then Mr. Hanns-Martin Schleyer, and all the passengers and the crew of the lh737 plane, flight no. 181 will be killed immediately.
  2. If you comply with our instructions all of them will be released.
  3. We shall not contact you again. This is our last contact with you. You are completely to blame for any error or faults in the release of the above mentioned comrades in prison or in the delivery of the specified ransom according to the specified instructions.
  4. Any try on your part to delay or deceive us will mean immediate ending of the ultimatum and execution of Mr. Hanns-Martin Schleyer and all the passengers and the crew of the plane.