The Justice Ministry has refused to confirm or deny a report that the Bonn police are negotiating with the Palestine Liberation Organization to exchange II Palestinian terrorists arrested in West Germany several weeks ago for four members of the German Red Army terrorist group said to be hiding out in a PLO camp in a Middle Eastern country.
According to the report, in the magazine “Quick,” the PLO proposed the exchange and it is presently being negotiated between Guenter Ermisch, vice president of the West German Criminal Police and Abdullah Fronghi, the PLO representative in Bonn.
The Palestinians, reportedly armed, were arrested when they attempted to enter West Germany from Austria and Holland. They are being held in jail pending investigation of charges of possessing explosives and plotting terrorist acts. The Red Army terrorists were arrested in Yugoslavia last year but released after negotiations for their extradition failed. They were flown out of Yugoslavia to an unknown destination.
The Belgrade authorities have refused to provide details but German intelligence sources believe they found shelter with the PLO. Proof exists that German terrorists have, in the past, received training in guerilla warfare at PLO camps in Lebanon.
According to newspaper reports, a four-member delegation of the Federal Criminal Police met with PLO officials in Beirut recently to try to enlist their cooperation in the terrorist hunt. According to unconfirmed reports, the PLO promised such cooperation but denied that it was sheltering any Red Army terrorists.
Meanwhile, Franghi said in an interview published in the West Berlin Berliner Morgenpost, that he could not guarantee that Palestinians would not carry out terrorist attacks in West Germany. But he insisted that if they did, it would be without orders or approval by the PLO. He said his organization did everything possible “to keep these people under control.” Franghi confirmed that he had been in contact with the Interior Minister to discuss questions of combatting terrorism. He said the discussions were initiated after PLO officials were killed by a bomb in Beirut.
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