German leader meets with leftist terrorist to decide on clemency plea

BERLIN -- The German president has met with a convicted leftist terrorist leader to decide whether to grant him clemency, his spokesman said Saturday, angering conservative lawmakers who want no mercy for those who showed their victims none.

Christian Klar's clemency plea has provoked an emotional debate across Germany. Conservatives are vehemently opposed to the early release of a man convicted for his role in the murders of several people as a leader of the Red Army Faction, a group that left a trail of bodies in its two-decade campaign against capitalism.

But in a country where most people serve less than 20 years of life sentences, many think Klar is justified in seeking clemency after 24 years in prison.

President Horst Koehler will decide next week whether to grant Klar's early release, presidential spokesman Martin Kothe said. He confirmed a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the president met with Klar last week.

Conservatives strengthened their resolve to fight the clemency plea when Klar sent a message from prison earlier this year that seemed to indicate he had not lost his revolutionary fervor. Klar, 54, called for "completing the defeat" of capitalism "and opening the door for a different future."