German train bombing trial fails to convene amid security concerns

May 22, 2007, 8:55 GMT

Beirut - The trial of four Lebanese suspects charged with a failed German train bombing attempt failed to convene Tuesday amid the tense security situation in the country, judicial sources said.

Fawaz Zakariyeh, the lawyer of Jihad Hamad, one of the main suspects, told Deutsche presse-Agentur dpa 'the court was not in session today due to the violence taking place in northern Lebanon and Beirut.

'I cannot say if the court will set a date today but all I can say (is) the court was not in session today due to the security situation in the country,' he said without elaborating.

At a hearing last month, the defence demanded that the trial be moved to the northern port city of Tripoli, arguing that the suspects' families couldn't afford travel expenses to Beirut, a two- hour drive away.

The request was rejected by presiding Judge Michel Abou Arraj who did not give any grounds for the decision. The defence then decided to appeal the ruling.

However, court officials have said security concerns, including the possibility of an attack to free the suspects, prompted authorities to hold the four in the country's main maximum security prison and to have the court sit in the Lebanese capital.

Along with Hamad, the three other suspects on trial and held in police custody are Ayman Hawa, Khalil al-Boubou and Khaled al-Haj dib.

Two other Lebanese suspects were being tried in absentia. Youssef al-Haj dib is under arrest in Germany, and his brother, Saddam, who was killed on Sunday during clashes between the Lebanese army and an alleged al-Qaeda group called Fatah al-Islam in northern Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities arrested the suspects on charges for allegedly planting crude bombs on two trains at the Cologne station on July 31, 2006.

The bombs, found later in the day on trains at the Koblenz and Dortmund stations, failed to explode because of faulty detonators. German surveillance cameras are said to have filmed the suspects as they wheeled suitcases into the station.

Judicial sources say Germany wants the men extradited to stand trial in Germany, but there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. Lebanon has decided to try the suspects in its courts.