Is 24 years enough for 9 lives?

She helped kill nine people, she got five consecutive life sentences, she’s never shown the slightest remorse, and she’s walking after only 24 years in prison:

A former member of the Baader-Meinhof gang has been released after serving 24 years for her involvement in kidnappings and murders in the 1970s.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57,was released from the Aichach prison in Germany on Sunday, a prison official said.

Last month a German court ruled that Mohnhaupt qualified for early release after serving a minimum proportion of her five life sentences.

The group was also known as the Red Army Faction.

The prospect of Mohnhaupt’s release sparked a fierce debate in Germany.

Mohnhaupt was convicted of involvement in nine murders. Victims included a judge, a banker and the employers’ federation president.

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, in Berlin, says she was once described as the most evil and dangerous woman in West Germany.

***

The Red Army Faction sought to combat what it saw as capitalist oppression of workers and US imperialism.

It was active from about 1970 – having grown out of student anti-Vietnam war protests – until 1992, when it abandoned violence. It formally disbanded in 1998.

One of the group’s most prominent targets was the German industrialist Hans Martin Schleyer – who was kidnapped in September 1977 and shot six weeks later.

Speaking before the court ruling, Mr Schleyer’s son Joerg said members of the group had expressed no remorse for the killing.

Where’s the justice in that?