German "suitcase bombers" get stiff sentences in Beirut Combines eca 093, 102, changes dateline to Beirut/Dusseldorf (Roundup)

Dec 18, 2007, 11:41 GMT

Beirut/Dusseldorf - A court in Beirut on Tuesday sentenced a 22-year-old Lebanese national, Jihad Hamad, to 12 years in jail, finding him guilty of attempted mass murder for a failed bomb attack on two trains in Germany in July 2006.

The bombs, had they detonated, could have caused carnage on the scale seen in Madrid in March 2004 and in London in July 2005.

Hamad's co-conspirator, Youssef al-Hajj Dib, 23, was sentenced to death in absentia, commuted to an effective 21 years. Three other suspects, Khalid al Hajj Dib, 20, Ayman Hawwa, 23, and Khalil Boubou, 24, were freed.

A sixth man linked to the case, Saddam al-Hajj Dib, the brother of Youssef, was killed on May 21 during clashes between security forces and Fatah al-Islam militants in the northern ity of Tripoli.

Hajj Dib went on trial Tuesday in the German city of Dusseldorf for his role in the failed attack, charged with multiple murder.

During the Beirut trial, Hamad admitted in court that he and Hajj Dib had bought two gas canisters, wires and two suitcases.

Their action had been a protest against the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, he said.

The two men built the bombs using designs they found on the internet, placed them in the suitcases and went together to Cologne station on July 31, 2006.

They took trains in opposite directions, left the bombs on board and left the country. Neither bomb exploded.

Hamad has always denied that he was a follower of any 'Muslim fundamentalist group or jihadist group.' He also denied any links with al-Qaeda.

His lawyer, Fawaz Zakaria described the sentence as 'high and harsh,' predicting Hajj Dib would receive a much lighter sentence in Germany.

'I will appeal in 15 days and try to reduce this harsh sentence,' Zakaria told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, adding that Hajj Dib had influenced his client.

Hajj Dib, who was arrested at Kiel railway station in northern Germany in August 2006, is reported to have shared an apartment in Cologne with Jihad just weeks before the attempted bombings.

According to Zakaria, 'Youssef told Jihad that two German newspapers had printed the 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.'

Hamad's father, Shahid, a former Lebanese army soldier, described his son as a victim. 'I just pray that the judge will accept the appeal,' he told dpa.

German police said the two Lebanese had assembled the devices wrongly.

Had there not been errors in the bombs' construction, the explosions near the cities of Hamm and Koblenz would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.

In Dusseldorf, long queues formed outside the high-security court, Tuesday delaying the start of proceedings, as police conducted body searches of those entering, in some cases insisting they remove their shoes.

Haj Dibb appeared calm as he entered the heavily guarded courtroom and greeted his legal team.

Tuesday's proceedings were of a formal nature. The main part of the trial is to commence next year and is expected to run for months.

Haj Dibb's defence is to argue that the young men deliberately designed the bombs not to detonate, intending only to scare the German public.

This is contested by the prosecution, which argues that the bombs' construction points to an intent to cause death and serious injury.

Earlier allegations that a shadowy Islamist terrorist group commissioned the attack have not been included in the German indictment. Prosecutors accept it is possible the pair were fanatical freelancers inspired by Islamist ideology.

Ottmar Breidling, one of Germany's leading trial judges dealing with Islamist conspiracies, is presiding at the German trial.

Commuter trains were bombed by Islamist extremists in Madrid in March 2004, claiming 191 lives. The London attacks in July the next year caused 52 deaths, apart from the four suicide bombers.