Irmgard Moeller, the Red Army Faction terrorist who blew up three American soldiers with a car bomb 22 years ago, walked unrepentant Thursday out of the prison where she had been serving a life sentence.
Wearing jeans, a leather jacket and red sweater, Moeller smiled, waved and gathered up bouquets from fans, who were singing 1960s anti-Vietnam War songs and chanting revolutionary slogans outside the prison's blue steel gates."It still feels unreal," she said, her words nearly drowned out by the crowd of 200, who carried red flags, champagne bottles and Christmas presents.
Moeller, 47, appealed for freedom for other "political prisoners" and thanked her supporters and friends for helping her cope with years in prison.
Moeller was convicted of driving one of two explosives-laden cars that blew up May 24, 1972, at U.S. Army headquarters in Heidelberg. The blast killed Capt. Clyde R. Bonner and two enlisted men, Charles L. Peck and Ronald A. Woodward.
Moeller was arrested six weeks later and sentenced to life in prison plus 15 years.
The longest serving female prisoner in Germany, she was freed because of her poor health, although she has shown no remorse and refused to cooperate with psychiatric evaluations to determine whether she is still dangerous.
A court in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, where the prison is located, determined that she is not likely to commit another violent crime and placed her on probation for five years.
A striking black-haired woman when she went to jail at the age of 25, Moeller's lined face and graying hair now reflect her long life behind bars. She is also said to be suffering from skin, eye and other ailments.
After its last actions - assassinating a German official in 1991 and blowing up a new prison in 1993 - the Red Army Faction announced it was ending a 20-year campaign of attacks on what it called "imperialist" targets.
Before the court's decision, the U.S. State Department said it objected to freeing terrorists who show no remorse for politically motivated attacks.
U.S. Air Force Sgt. Charles Bonner, the 29-year-old son of victim Clyde Bonner, contacted German officials to protest the decision.
A daughter of strict Roman Catholic parents from Munich, Moeller became involved in the leftist student movement of the 1960s, got to know the founders of the Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, and went underground in 1971.