Rolf Ludwig Pohle (January 4, 1942, Berlin - February 7, 2004, Athens) was a lawyer and activist who was also convicted as a member of the terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF).

Biography

Rolf Pohle was born in Berlin in 1942 and from 1954 onward he lived in Munich. He was the son of Law Professor Rudolf Pohle. He studied in Munich's Maximiliansgymnasium and then Law in Berlin and Munich and graduated in 1966. During his studies he joined the German Liberal Students' Club ( ''Liberaler Studentenbund Deutschlands''). He later became a member of the extra-parliamentary Opposition (APO) and in 1967 he was elected president of a students' club in the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. After the assassination attempt against the student Rudi Dutschke in April 1968, he stood as a lawyer for the arrested members of APO. In 1969 Pohle was sentenced to 15 months in prison for participating in the protests of spring 1968. In 1971, he was arrested again and, after being in jail for about 2 years, in 1974 he was sentenced to years in prison for participation in the terrorist organization Faction Red Army and possession of guns. However, he refused the accusations. When asked in the court to provide information about himself, he read the lyrics of the song ''Mein Name ist Mensch'' (''My name is Human''). In March 1975, the Movement of 2nd June (organization cooperating with RAF) kidnapped Peter Lorenz, politician of CDU, threatening to kill him if Pohle and other members of the RAF were not released. The government accepted and released the prisoners, who were then transferred to

South Yemen South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...

. From there, Pohle went to Greece where he was arrested in July 1976. Initially the court (''Συμβούλιο Εφετών'') rejected the request for his extradition to Germany based on the political nature of his crimes and the prohibition by the

Greek Constitution The Constitution of Greece ( el, Σύνταγμα της Ελλάδας, Syntagma tis Elladas) was created by the Fifth Revisionary Parliament of the Hellenes in 1974, after the fall of the Greek military junta and the start of the Third Hellen ...

of the "extradition of a foreigner who is persecuted for his action for freedom". However, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

made an appeal to the court's decision and allowed his extradition. During these trials, there was a large movement in favor of Pohle and against his extradition. Despite this, he was imprisoned in Germany for six years, until 1982. Two years later he moved to Athens, Greece, where he spent the rest of his life. He worked as a German language instructor and interpreter. He married lawyer Katerina Iatropoulou, a member of his defense team in his extradition case. He died on February 7, 2004, after a long fight with cancer. According to other information, he died from

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pohle, Rolf Ludwig German lawyers German activists 1942 births 2004 deaths