|
Lebanese Man Stands Trial in Germany on Terrorism Charges
A Lebanese man will go on trial in Duesseldorf Tuesday on charges of attempted murder over a botched bombing plot against commuter trains in Germany. The 23-year-old defendant, Yousef Mohammed al-Hajj Dib, is one of two men prosecutors believe placed suitcases containing homemade explosives on two trains as they passed through the western city of Cologne in July last year. The devices failed to detonate, averting an almost certain bloodbath in what German officials said was a bid to copy the train blasts in Madrid and London. "A detonation would have in both cases led to a significant wave of pressure; lighter fluid in the 'bomb trolleys' could have set off a fireball," prosecutors said in the charge sheet. Dib could face life in prison. He has maintained his silence in police questioning. A charge of belonging to a terrorist organization that was originally considered against him has been dropped because German investigators do not have a third suspect in the case -- a requirement under the legal definition of a terror group. The second suspect, fellow Lebanese national Jihad Hamad, has been on trial since April in Beirut. Hamad has told German television that they were seeking revenge for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers. Prosecutors say they were also angered by the killing last year by the U.S. military of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born Al-Qaida leader in Iraq. The suspects were identified using footage from security cameras at the Cologne rail station, which captured the image of two men placing heavy suitcases on trains then leaving the station. The defendants later flew to Istanbul then Damascus before crossing the border into Lebanon. Dib returned to Germany in August to resume his studies but was picked up by police days later at the rail station in the northern city of Kiel thanks to a tip provided to authorities by the Lebanese secret services. Five days later, Hamad turned himself in to police in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. Authorities have warned that Islamic extremists have Germany in their sights, noting that good luck and effective police work had only just thwarted a number of attacks. The latest involved three men arrested in September as they were allegedly preparing to make bombs to launch "massive" attacks on the U.S. Ramstein airbase and U.S. and Uzbek consulates. A fourth suspect was picked up in Turkey. Prosecutors said the men were members of the Islamic Jihad Union, a group with links to Al-Qaida and has its roots in Uzbekistan.( Posted by: Fred 2007-12-17 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=213705 |