Guerrillas to be tried

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 8

Guerrillas to be tried

NZPA-Reuter Ankara Turkey yesterday prepared to lay charges against four Palestinian guerrillas who surrendered after holding hostages in the Egyptian embassy in Ankara in a siege which began with bullets and ended with kisses.

“They will certainly pay for their crimes here,” the Ankara police chief said on television.

The four Palestinian guerrillas, who will almost certainly be tried under Turkish martial law, could face the death penalty for killing two Turkish policemen when they stormed the embassy on Friday morning. An Egyptian diplomat also died during the 45-hour siege when he jumped from the top floor of the embassy and

another was injured in a similar fall.

A Turkish policeman was hit in the hand by a bullet. The guerrillas gave themselves up on Sunday morning in the face of Turkish threats to unleash an all-out assault on the embassy and under strong pressure from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. The P.L.O. had condemned the attack which was mounted bv breakaway guerrillas of the Eagles of the Palestine Revolution. The P.L.O. flew in a four-man team to talk the guerrillas into surrender. Both the P.L.O. and the Government of the Prime Minister (Mr Bulent Ecevit) claimed victory as they worked together at high level to save the lives of the Egyptian hostages.

The P.L.O. emerged from the affair with increased respectability in Turkey, and Mr Ecevit's shaky Government came out strengthened. The two parties emphasised that no conditions were set for the end of the siege, but the P.L.O. negotiating team said it had completed arrangements to open a bureau in Ankara during con. tacts with the Government. The semi-official Cairo newspaper, "Al Ahram,” has blamed Syria for the attack and said it would not escape Egyptian punishment. “The entire world knows that the Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution were agents of the Syrian Government. The dirty hand that hatched this conspiracy shall not escape punishment and the coming day will prove this,” the newspaper said.