Masters of Disruption

West German terrorists have a powerful ally: their country's legal system. The laws of the Federal Republic, many enacted when Hitler was a fresh memory, strongly guarantee the right of political dissent and put heavy restraints on the investigative and prosecutory powers of the state. A cadre of 70 or so clever young radical lawyers (out of 31,000 practicing attorneys in West Germany) have pushed the system to its libertarian limits. They are not only the terrorists' best friends, but also the worst enemies of the courts.

Most of these radical attorneys attended law school in the late '60s and were deeply influenced by the radical student movement of the time. In their forensic strategies, they have clearly taken cues from the U.S.'s William Kunstler and other defense counsel who gained prominence during the widely publicized trials of American radicals like the Chicago Seven. The German lawyers have mastered the art of disrupting cases with obfuscating rhetoric, demands for evidence that is impossible to secure, requests for delays. Lacking any provision for contempt of court, German judges have generally been powerless to control these lawyers; disbarment is a seldom used procedure. Using the privileged status of the attorney-client relationship as a cloak, about a dozen of these lawyers have served--illegally--as liaison between imprisoned terrorists and their colleagues still at large.

In the past two years, for example, there were 12,664 visits to twelve imprisoned terrorists by attorneys who brought about 60,000 pieces of mail. Lawyer Armin Newerla made some 600 visits to his terrorist client during the period--yet made only four courtroom appearances. Authorities are convinced that on such "consultative visits" the lawyers carry messages from one terrorist group to another, coordinate hunger strikes and develop plans for future terrorist attacks. Nothing else explains the uncanny prescience of the eleven terrorists whose freedom was demanded last week by the kidnapers of Hanns-Martin Schleyer. Although in separate prisons, all eleven abruptly ceased hunger strikes four days before the industrialist's abduction--apparently to regain strength for the release they expected in exchange for Schleyer's freedom. Some attorneys have become active participants in terrorism. Siegfried Haag, 32, is now awaiting trial on charges of helping to organize the 1975 raid on the West German embassy in Stockholm. Before his second arrest late last year, he was trained in hijacking techniques in South Yemen and, for a time, served as Andreas Baader's defense counsel. Bonn believes that Haag may have masterminded last week's kidnaping. As a result of the attorneys' flagrant abuse of their privileges, laws have been enacted that allow the government to spy on the correspondence between lawyer and client. New restrictions on the lawyer-client relationship are likely. Among the anti-terrorist measures approved by the Cabinet last week was one that would enable courts to bar from terrorist proceedings all lawyers suspected of criminal collaboration. As of now, only absolute proof of wrongdoing is grounds for such action. The opposition Christian Democrats insist that the Bonn government must get even tougher--for example, by assigning an independent judge to monitor all attorney-client meetings where there is any possibility of criminal collaboration.

Helmut Schmidt's government fears that any such legislation would be too great an infringement on individual rights. Nonetheless, the radical lawyers may begin finding it more difficult to collaborate with their terrorist clients.

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