Red Army Murderer Is Paroled

BERLIN — A former radical leftist convicted in the murder of an American soldier and bombing of an American military base poses no more danger to the public and will be released on parole, a German court ruled Friday.

Eva Haule, a one-time member of the Red Army Faction, will be released today after serving 21 years of a life sentence for the 1985 attacks, the Frankfurt state court said. She will be the second convicted member of the group to win parole this year.

Ms. Haule, 53, a member of the Red Army Faction from February 1984 until her arrest in August 1986, was convicted in 1988 of membership of a terrorist organization and weapons possession in connection with a failed 1984 attack on a NATO training school in Bavaria.

In 1994, a Frankfurt court convicted her in the killing of Specialist Edward Pimental, 20, who was shot after he left a discotheque on August 7, 1985, in the western German city of Wiesbaden with a woman. His body was found in nearby woods.

Authorities said the terrorists used Pimental's ID card to enter the Rhein-Main air base in Frankfurt. The following day, explosives packed in a Volkswagen rocked the parking lot behind the base headquarters. Two Americans were killed and 23 wounded.

Ms. Haule was convicted and sentenced to life on three counts of murder and a charge of bringing about an explosion.

Although it could not be determined that Ms. Haule actually fired the weapon that killed Pimental, the Frankfurt court ruled she was closely involved in planning and carrying out the murder and the bombing.

At the time of her arrest, Ms. Haule was considered part of the Red Army Faction's hard core, but the Frankfurt court said she has renounced violence and it "reached the conclusion that [Ms. Haule] now no longer poses any danger to the public."

Federal prosecutors called for her release on parole and prison authorities endorsed the plan, the court said. Judges held two hearings with Ms. Haule before the court made its decision. They also considered psychologists' reports. The court said its decision was influenced by the fact that "she actively participated in the self-dissolution of the RAF in 1998 and convincingly made clear that she no longer views violence in the form of armed fighting as an appropriate method to achieve political aims."