Suspects in German train bomb to go on trial 05/03/2007 00:00

Beirut (dpa) - Four Lebanese men accused of involvement in a plot to blow up trains in Germany last year are set to begin trial on in Lebanon on April 11, a judicial source said Monday.

Sources said Monday that the main suspect Jihad Hamad, who was arrested on Lebanese soil on August 24, 2006, reiterated an earlier confession that he planted one of the explosives.

Hamad said his intentions "were not to kill but to stop people from defaming the image of the Prophet Mohammed."

German police said publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Western and some Arab Media had been the "trigger" for the alleged terrorists to organize the bombings on July 31, 2006, which failed when the bombs hidden in regional trains did not explode owing to detonator faults.

The other accused include Khaled al-Hajj Dib, Ayman Hawa, and Khalil Ahmed al-Boubou, who along with Hamad were arrested in northern Lebanon.

Two other accused co-conspirators are Youssef al-Hajj Dib, who was arrested in Germany and remains incarcerated there, and his brother Saddam Hajj Dib, who is reportedly being held in Syria.

A Lebanese security source told dpa that the main link between the six suspects was that all are Sunni fundamentalists from northern Lebanon, a hotbed of Sunni fundamentalist groups who support the views of al-Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden.

Youssef al-Hajj Dib and Jihad Hamad, the two main suspects, were said by Lebanese security sources to have been influenced by the late al-Qaeda chief in Iraq Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

If the convicted the Lebanese could face 25 years in prison for attempted murder and arson.

DPA

Subject: German news