The Senate of the Superior Provincial Court here has upheld a 20-year-prison term for Bahij Younis, a Palestinian terrorist convicted of masterminding the attack on the Jewish Community Center in which two persons were killed and 18 wounded, and the murder of Heinz Nittel, president of the Israeli-Austrian Friendship Society–both in 1981.
The verdict, announced last week, came after the fourth and final trial in the Younis case, and it is final. It followed three earlier sentences — one for life imprisonment and two for a 20-year term — both of which were previously overturned by an appelate court.
Nittel, who was also a City Council member, was murdered outside his home in May 1981. In August of that year, two Palestinian terrorists attacked the Jewish Community Center with hand-grenades and submachine guns. Both were apprehended and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Younis, 32, arrested after the synagogue attack, pleaded not guilty to the charge of having served as the commanding officer in both crimes. The murder weapon that killed Nittel was found in his house, as were the passports of the two terrorists, who claimed to belong to the Abu Nidal group, which splintered off from the PLO.
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