Posted on 02/19/2008 1:53:54 PM PST by knighthawk
Lebanon's chief prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for the fugitive Palestinian chief of an Islamist group over a twin bus bombing a year ago that killed three people, his office said on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Said Mirza has accused Shaker al-Abssi, leader of the Fatah al-Islam group which fought a 15-week battle against the army in a Palestinian refugee camp during 2007, of "incitement to murder," over the attack. He is seeking the same penalty for another three Syrian activists of the Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam who are accused of launching the February 13, 2007 attack in the mountain village of Ain Alak.
According to the AP, the Syrians behind bars in the case, for which a trial date has yet to be announced, were named as Mustafa Siou, Kamal Farid Nassan and Yasser Shukeiri. The charge sheet accuses Siou of having planted the explosives on one of the buses, while fellow attacker Omar Hajji had bombed the other vehicle and been killed in fighting in Nahr al-Bared camp later the same year.
Nassan and Shukeiri allegedly helped Siou transport the bomb.
Siou has allegedly confessed that the bus attack was carried out as "a message to the anti-Syrian majority" in the Lebanese parliament. He has also said that Abssi planned to place a bomb at a Shiite religious meeting place used by Hizbullah or near the offices of the Phalangists, a Christian party, as part of a plot to stir sectarian strife.
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