Swiss Court Acquits Rachamim, Imposes 12-year Sentences on Arabs for Attacking Plane

A Swiss court today imposed 12-year prison sentences on three Arab terrorists found guilty of the fatal attack on an El Al airliner at Zurich airport last Feb. 18 but acquitted an El Al security guard who gunned down a fourth Arab in the melee.

The president of the cantonal court, Judge Hans Gut, declared 23-year-old Mordechai Rachamim not guilty of charges of homicide under stress of passion and infringement of Swiss territory while acting as a foreign agent. The court expressed regret over the inconvenience caused Mr. Rachamim by his five weeks of detention during the preliminary investigation of the airport attack. He was subsequently freed on bail and returned to Switzerland a month ago for the trial.

The three Arabs received the maximum sentence allowed by Swiss law–12 years at hard labor. They were found guilty on five of six counts including premeditated murder, the use of explosives for criminal purposes, causing grievous bodily harm, illegal possession of arms and infringement of Swiss territorial neutrality.

The sentences were pronounced on Muhammed Abu El Heiga 24, Amina Dabhor 22, and Ibrahim Tewfik Youssef, 34. They were deprived of all civic rights for three years and were forbidden to enter Switzerland for 15 years after their sentences are completed. The trio was acquitted on the charge of having caused material damage to the Israeli Airliner. An Israeli pilot-trainee, Yoram Peress, was fatally wounded in the attack.

The outcome of the trial represented only a partial victory for the prosecuting attorney. Dr. Oscar Birch. The court accepted his recommendations with regard to sentencing the Arabs but rejected his demand that Mr. Rachamim be given a two year sentence for shooting the Arab terrorist, Abdel Muhsen, Mr. Rachamim’s lawyer, George Brunshvig, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency afterward that the was “delighted” with the verdict. “It reached my best expectations,” he said. The Israeli State Attorney, Dr. Gabriel Bach, who attended the trial as an observer and adviser to Mr. Rachamim’s lawyer, said “the verdict demonstrated the court’s refusal to accept the Arab claim that this was a military action and treated the attack on an unarmed civilian plane as purely a criminal act.” Mr. Rachamim appeared unmoved when the verdict was read and translated to him in Hebrew. He told his attorney that he never had any doubts of the outcome of the case. He was scheduled to return to Israel today.