"Suitcase bomber" sentenced to 12 years in Beirut (1st Lead)

Dec 18, 2007, 10:15 GMT

Beirut - A court in Beirut on Tuesday sentenced Lebanese national Jihad Hamad to 12 years' imprisonment for his involvement in an attempt to blow up two trains in Germany in July 2006.

Three other suspects on trial in the case were found not guilty and released.

Hamad's alleged co-conspirator, Youssef al-Hajj Dib, whose trial begins in Dusseldorf, Germany Tuesday was sentenced to death in absentia. This sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

Hamad admitted in court that he and Hajj Dib, whose trial was due to start Tuesday in Germany, bought two gas canisters, wires and two bags to place on the trains to protest against the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed originally published in a Danish newspaper.

The two men allegedly built the bombs using designs they found on the internet, hid them in suitcases and went together to Cologne station in the west of Germany on July 31 last year.

They took trains in opposite directions, left the bombs on board and left the country. Neither bomb exploded, and police say the two Lebanese assembled the devices wrongly.

Had there not been errors in the bombs' construction, German investigators said the explosions near the cities of Hamm and Koblenz would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, making the plotted attack much larger than the terrorist attacks on London in July 2005.

Hamad has always denied that he was a follower of any 'Muslim fundamentalist group or jihadist group.' He also denied any links with the Sunni Muslim fundamentalist group al-Qaeda which is led by Osama bin Laden.

Hamad's lawyer has vowed that he would appeal any prison sentence that was longer than three to five years. He has claimed that his client was influenced by Hajj Dib.

Hajj Dib, who was arrested at Kiel's main railway station in northern Germany, had apparently shared an apartment in Cologne with Jihad just weeks before the attempted bombings.

According to the lawyer, 'Youssef told Jihad that two German newspapers had printed the (prophet) Mohammad caricatures and that if they did nothing ... they will go to hell...'

The lawyer stressed that Hamad was a victim and that he had 'never belonged to any fundamentalist movement, but Youssef al Hajj-Dib has brainwashed him for one week and told him to help in this act.' dpa wh ch