Mahmoud Hijazi, convicted Arab infiltrator who was sentenced to death but ordered re-tried by the Israel Supreme Court, today sent letters to the heads of state of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, requesting that they furnish him with a lawyer to represent him at his new trial.
Hijazi’s conviction and death sentence were negated by the Supreme Court here specifically on the grounds that he had not been given sufficient opportunity to obtain an Arab lawyer from an Arab state or some other foreign attorney of his own choice.
In his letters to the four Arab government leaders, Hijazi explained that, prior to his capture after infiltrating into Israel from Jordan, he had been wounded. He stated that he had refused to accept the services of an Israeli attorney, offered him by Israel’s Chamber of Advocates. His new trial is scheduled to start in about two months.
Meanwhile, terrorists believed to be members of the Arab sabotage organization, El Fatah, operating from a base in Jordan, carried out another night-time attack in Israel, according to a complaint filed by Israel today with the United Nations Jordan-Israel Armistice Commission.
This time, Israel charged, damage was caused to a water pipeline southwest of Sdom, about seven miles inside Israel’s border with Jordan. The saboteurs had set off a charge of explosives under a 16-inch pipeline which supplies water to the Dead Sea Works from sources in the Nahal Tamar region.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
