Two Arab girls who participated in the hijacking of a Sabena jet at Lydda Airport May 8 will go on trial before a military tribunal in Lydda shortly. The prosecution has already completed a five-count charge sheet against Rima Issa Tannus and Therese Saliman Halaseh, presently in the Neve Tirtzah women’s prison. The charges include violations of Regulation 58 of the Emergency Defense Regulations, the same brought against the Japanese “kamikaze” gunman Kozo Okamoto who received a life sentence last week for his part in the May 30 Lydda Airport massacre.
The trial is expected to open early next month though defense counsel has not yet been named. The two girls were part of a hijack team of four that took over an Israel-bound Belgian airliner shortly before it landed at Lydda and held its 100 passengers and crew members hostage for more than 24 hours demanding the release of Arab terrorists in exchange for their lives. Two male hijackers. Ahmed Awad and Abdul Aziz were killed when Israeli paratroopers liberated the plane. One passenger was fatally wounded in the gunfight and Miss Halaseh, an Acre-born nurse, was wounded seriously but has recovered.
The two girls are charged with committing offenses against Regulation 58 with weapons and explosives; possession of weapons and ammunition; planting bombs; and two counts involving membership in an illegal organization. The Sabena airliner was laced with explosive charges that could have destroyed it. The hijackers were members of the Black September organization, a Palestinian terrorist group that takes its name from the Jordanian civil war of Sept. 1970.
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