Suspected terrorist rejects trial

Press, 25 February 1987, Page 10

Suspected terrorist rejects trial

NZPA-Reuter Paris The trial of the suspected Lebanese guerrilla leader, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, on charges of political violence goes into its second day today but without the defendant in the dock. ”

Abdallah, aged 35, who yesterday identified himself in court only as “an Arab fighter,” delivered a long tirade attacking “blond Westerners with blue eyes” before absenting himself from the court.

Shouting “down with Yankee imperialism and its lackeys,” the Lebanese Christian militant left the courtroom in the Palais de Justice, in central Paris. The defence lawyer, Jacques Verges, said Abdallah would be absent for the rest of the trial. Abdallah, believed by police to be the founder and leader of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary

Factions (F.A.R.L.), is accused of complicity in the murders of a United States military attache, Charles Ray, and Israeli diplomat, Yacov Barsimentov in 1982.

He is also charged with involvement in the attempt on the life of the United States Consul-Gen-eral, Robert Onan Homme, in Strasbourg in 1984.

Mr Verges said he wanted the court to call several members of the former Socialist government, including the former Prime Minister, Laurent Fabius, as witnesses.

He had announced before the start of the trial that he intended to call on the former Ministers, who, he said, would testify that France made a deal with the F.A.R.L. in 1985, promising to free Abdallah in return for the release of a French hostage Gilles Sidney Peyrolles, who was freed that year. In his statement, Abdallah denied involvement in the attacks on diplomats but said he approved the action.

He challenged France’s

right to try him, and addressed angry words to the United States, which has joined the case as a civil party to press for a long prison sentence for the defendant. “In no situation would I bring myself into contact with a Yankee criminal,” he said, looking towards Washington’s lawyer in the trial, Georges Kiejman.

France’s Government has put 3500 police on full alert in Paris as part of stringent security measures surrounding the trial. The move follows a number of threats, of violent attacks to coincide with the trial.

Last year, a group calling itself the Committee of Solidarity with Middle East and Arab Political Prisoners launched a series of bombings to back demands for the release of Abdallah and two other jailed militants.

The attacks culminated in a wave of five bombings in crowded public places last September, in which 11 people died and more than 160 were injured.