CIA-RDP96-00789R000400020002-4

Approved For Release 1000108:08A @usRDP15001784R500-100010004-40 Go on Trial
By Robert J. McCartney
Washington Post Foreign Service
FRANKFURT, July 4-Shortly
after 2:30 a.m. on June 15, 1985,
two radical Shiite hijackers wearing
Palm Beach suits and Italian shoes
*dragged U.S. Navy diver Robert
Dean Stethem of Waldorf, Md., to
the door of a TWA jet parked on a
.runway of Beirut International Air-
port, shot him in the head and
hurled his body to the tarmac.
On Tuesday, in a $6.7 million,
high-security courtroom built for the
occasion, Lebanese Mohammed Ali
Hamadei goes on trial on charges of
"having participated in the murder.
The trial will be scrutinized by
Washington policymakers and Bei-
rut kidnapers as a rare instance in
which a suspected major interna-
Conal terrorist faces the court of a
western democracy.
We will be watching it closely as
a measure of effective western re-
spo se to terrorism," said L. Paul
Breber, the State Department's
"ambassador-at-large "for counter-
terrorism.
Ja Lebanon, the kidnapers of
West German chemical company
manager Rudolf Cordes also will be
watchung. They grabbed Cordes as
[Thostage four days after Hamadei's
arrest in January 1986, to press for
the defendant's release.' Two other
West Germans were later kidnaped
in Lebanon but have been released.
The case carries considerable
symbolic importance in me United
States, because the dramatic 17-day
hijacking is one of the best known
instances in which terrorists directly
challenged the U.S. government.
.- In many American memories, the
image sun is sharp of Capt. John L.
Testrake's televised interview in
the Boeing 727 cockpit while a hi-
jacker pointed a gun at his head.
Purser Ulrike (Uli) Derickson be-
came a heroine for refusing the hi-
jackers' demand that she pick out
passports of passengers with Jew-
ish-sounding names.
"This is an extremely important
case because of the brutality of the
crimes and the prolonged agony of
the passengers who were held hos-
tage," Bremer said.
Thirty-nine Americans out of the
original 153 passengers and crew
were held hostage for the full 17
days. More than 700 Moslem de-
tainees held by Israel were released
in stages, as the hijackers had de-
manded, after the hijacking ended.
Hamadei faces a mandatory life
sentence if he is convicted of mur-
dering Stethem. The prosecution
plans to call 125 witnesses, includ-
ing a large number of the American
passengers, and the trial is sched-
uled to last until December.
It is understood that none of the
witnesses actually saw which hijack-
er pulled the trigger. Under Ger-
man law, however, a hijacker could
be found guilty of murder if he was
aware that the killing was planned
and approved it.
Passengers have said they saw a
man who resembles Hamadei drag
Stethem to the front of the cabin,
wave a gun in the air, and exult af-
ter the shooting.
There is a possibility that the
maximum sentence could be re-
-
duced
15 years if the court
judges ft it is important that Ha-
madei is under 21-and there-
fore noan adult-at the time the
hijackin was planned. Persons be-
tween e ages of 18 and 21 can
receive special treatment under
West G-man law.
Accoling to the birthdate on
severalfficial documents, Hamadei
turned n the day before the hijack-
ing begh, and now is 24.
A doument purported to be a
Lebane birth certificate indicating
that hes four years younger-which
would squire that he be treated as a
juvenile and face a maximum 10
years' sentence --- is not taken: very
seriousy even by his court-appointed
defense attorney, Gabriele Steck-
Bromrie.
Hamadei also faces sentences of
up to :5 years' imprisonment if con-
victed on a variety of other charges,
including hijacking, hostage-taking,
aggravated robbery and what trans-
lates from German as ^robber-like
extortion." He faces lesser charges
of causing grievous, bodily harm,
explosives violations and forgery.
The stakes in the case are mixed
for West Germany, where Hamadei
was caught 18 months ago at Frank-
furt airport as he allegedly tried to
smuggle in four bottles of highly ex-
plosive liquid disguised as wine.
West German authorities have
pledged to prosecute Hamadei to
the full force of the law, and they
know that any backsliding will draw
bitter protests from Washington.
Court officials here and federal
officials in Bonn emphasized that
the nation's judiciary Is Independent
of outside pressures. But Bonn alsò
wants to safeguard hostage Cordes
in Lebanon and has already disap-
pointed Washington by refusing a
year ago to extradite Hamadei to
the United States to stand trial.
MOHAMMED ALI HAMADEI
.. . accused of hijacking TWA je
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000400020002-4
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