Germany: Ex-RAF Member Convicted in 1977 Killing A former member of the Red Army Faction was convicted Friday as an accessory to the 1977 murder of West Germany's chief federal prosecutor, one of the leftist group's most notorious killings, and sentenced to four years in prison. The Stuttgart state court ruled that, due to a previous conviction, 2 ½ years of Verena Becker's sentence counts as already served, news agency dapd reported. Becker went on trial in September 2010, accused of playing a leading role in the fatal ambush of prosecutor Siegfried Buback, his driver and a bodyguard. She was charged with three counts of murder, but prosecutors later backed off the assertion that Becker was a co-perpetrator. They argued that she had pushed for the attack and called for her to be convicted as an accessory. Presiding judge Hermann Wieland said that Becker supported and "knowingly and deliberately" influenced the perpetrators in their decision to kill Buback and his companions. But he said it wasn't possible to prove that Becker was involved in carrying out the killings. In May, Becker, 59, told the court that she was "never involved in concrete preparation" for the attack. She said she couldn't answer the question of who exactly fired the fatal shots, which has never been resolved, "because I wasn't there." Former member of the Red Army Faction, Verena Becker, leaves a courtroom in Stuttgart, Germany, Friday, July 6, 2012. Behind her, her lawyer Walter Venedey. Becker has been convicted as an accessory to the 1977 murder of West Germany's chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and sentenced to four years in prison. The Stuttgart state court delivered its verdict Friday in the trial of Verena Becker. News agency dapd reported that, due to a previous conviction, 2 ½ years of the sentence counts as served. Becker originally was accused of playing a leading role in the fatal ambush of prosecutor Siegfried Buback, his driver and a bodyguard. She was originally charged with three counts of murder. But prosecutors later backed off the assertion that Becker was a co-perpetrator and called for her to be convicted as an accessory. Becker testified that she was "never involved in concrete preparation" for the attack. (AP Photo/dapd/Daniel Maurer) Close Becker said she was in the Middle East on the day of the attack, and only learned of it later from media reports. An original investigation into Becker's role in the April 7, 1977 slaying - which took place during an especially bloody period of leftist violence in the then-West Germany - was closed in 1980 because of a lack of evidence. Becker was arrested in May 1977 and convicted of armed robbery and attempted murder stemming from a shootout with police that preceded her arrest. She was sentenced to life in prison, but pardoned in 1989 by West Germany's president. Three other Red Army Faction terrorists - Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Christian Klar and Knut Folkerts - were convicted of involvement in the Buback shooting in Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany, in which driver Wolfgang Goebel and bodyguard Georg Wurster also were killed. All refused to testify at Becker's trial. Becker was arrested again in August 2009 after a new investigation was opened, but set free a few months later by a federal court that ruled she didn't pose a flight risk. The new investigation was based in part on new evidence generated using DNA samples, including one linking Becker to a letter from the RAF sent on the day of the attack. The Red Army Faction emerged from German student protests against the Vietnam War. The group launched a violent campaign against what members considered U.S. imperialism and capitalist oppression of workers. The organization killed 34 people and injured hundreds. It declared itself disbanded in 1998. Prosecutors had sought a 4 ½-year sentence for Becker, while her defense team had called for her acquittal.