Meinhof's brain returned to family

Ms Meinhof was the intellect of Red Army Faction

By Katya Adler BBC correspondent in Berlin

German officials have revealed that the brain of the Red Army Faction leader, Ulrike Meinhof, has now been buried alongside the rest of her body.

Ms Meinhof's daughters have won permission to have her brain returned

Ms Meinhof's brain was removed after she died in her cell in 1976.

But for years its whereabouts remained a mystery.

However last month it was revealed that the brain had been kept in secret for scientific research.

Magdeburg University, which carried out research on the organ, was forced to return it to the former urban guerrilla's family.

Accusations

Ms Meinhof's daughter has won permission to have it returned for burial.

A professor at the university has acknowledged that he had been studying Ms Meinhof's brain to see whether the tumour surgery she had in the 1960s influenced her slide into political extremism.

Ms Meinhof was considered the intellectual head of the Red Army Faction, a left-wing revolutionary group that spread fear across West Germany in the 1970s and into the 1980s, after her death.

The professor said he had been given the organ by a now-retired pathologist.

Ms Meinhof's twin daughters have now filed a criminal complaint against the pathologist, accusing him of disturbing the peace of the dead.