Hans-Joachim Klein, an ex-member of the defunct far-right Revolutionary Cells movement in Germany, has died in France, where he was buried on Monday, the funeral services said.

In 1975, Klein took part in an attack on OPEC headquarters in Vienna orchestrated by Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal.

An Iraqi bodyguard, an Austrian policeman and an OPEC employee were killed and 70 people were taken hostage by six armed assailants.

He went into hiding, including in France, where he spent much of the 1990s until he was arrested by French anti-terrorist police in 1998.

Klein was sent back to Germany, where he was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2001 for his role in the Vienna attack.

Klein had already publicly admitted in 1977 that he had taken part in the attack, in which he was seriously injured, and had renounced political violence.

He was released from prison in 2003 and returned to his former hiding place, Sainte-Honorine-la-Guillaume in Normandy, where he lived until his death on November 9, according to local press reports.

Ramirez Sanchez is currently serving three life sentences in a French prison for his assaults.