Daily Star - Lawyer asks German court to acquit Lebanese bomber, November 14, 2008

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

DUESSELDORF: The Defense lawyer of a Lebanese man accused of plotting to bomb German passenger trains called for his acquittal Wednesday after prosecutors said he should spend the rest of his life in jail. Lebanese courts have already found Youssef Mohammad al-Hajj Dib, 24, guilty of the same crime and sentenced him to life in prison in absentia.
Dib and an accomplice allegedly placed homemade bombs packed in suitcases on two commuter trains carrying a total of about 280 people.
Only a technical fault prevented a bloodbath in a scheme investigators say was modeled on the train blasts in Madrid in 2004 and London the following year. Prosecutors argue the explosions could have killed up to 75 people.
Men identified as Dib and his associate, Jihad Hamad, were caught on security cameras putting the baggage on the trains.
The images played on heavy rotation on television in Germany, where the September 11, 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States were planned in part but which has escaped an attack by Islamic extremists.
Dib told the court in February that the plot had been hatched by Hamad, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in January in Beirut. That court also convicted Dib in absentia.
Dib said he had built his bomb so that it would not detonate, intending its discovery to be a warning to German society.
Authorities have said that Hamad claimed during questioning he and Dib also plotted to attack a stadium during the soccer World Cup in Germany in 2006 and a bridge apanning the Rhine River in the western city of Cologne.
Prosecutors are asking that he receive a life sentence.
Hamad testified that they abandoned those plans because of tight security surrounding World Cup venues and did not attack the bridge because a homemade bomb would not have been strong enough to destroy it, prosecutors said.
A verdict is expected on November 18. - AFP