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BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A former member of the now-disbanded German Red Army Faction will be released from prison in January, a court announced Monday.
Supporters of Christian Klar demand his release from prison in Berlin in 2007.
Christian Klar, 56, was sentenced to six counts of life imprisonment in 1982 over his involvement in the murder of German federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback, his driver and a police officer; the murder of the CEO of Dresdner Bank Juergen Ponto; and the murder of Dr. Hanns-Martin Schleyer, all in 1977.
The Red Army Faction, originally known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was a left-wing revolutionary group which kidnapped business leaders, gunned down police officers and hijacked an airliner.
The court ruled in 1998 that because of the severity of his crimes Klar would have to serve at least 26 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole. Those 26 years end on January 3, 2009.
The court in Stuttgart ruled that Klar no longer poses a threat to society and is not expected to engage in criminal activity again.
The German Federal Criminal Prosecutor's office had also put in a request to release Klar on parole because no other former Red Army Faction members released from jail have committed a crime after having been freed.
Brigitte Mohnhaupt, a former commander in the group, was released from jail last year.
The Red Army Faction waged a campaign of killings, bombings and kidnappings against the German establishment in the 1970s and into the 1980s.
The group was originally named after co-founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
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