Two Terrorists, Accused of Killing a Two-year Old Boy in Attack on El Ai, Sentenced

The two Jordanian terrorists accused of the murder of a two-year-old Greek boy in last November’s grenade attack on El Al’s Athens office were convicted yesterday in that city. Elias De-Garbedian, 24, was sentenced to 18 years and four months in prison and Mansour Mourad Zugsghe, 21, was sentenced to 11 years and three months. The convictions and penalties are moot, however, because under last Wednesday’s agreement between the Greek government and six Arab hijackers of a Greek airliner, the two prisoners and five others convicted earlier are to be freed and turned over to the International Red Cross by Aug. 29. Greek government sources rebuffed, over the weekend, Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s plea that the Papadapoulos regime renounce the agreement as having been made under duress. Der-Garbedian admitted throwing the grenade that killed the boy and injured 14 other persons, but testified that he had been assured the grenade would do nothing more than make a loud noise. The defendants are members of the small Popular Struggle Front, which said in Cairo that it would continue to attack Israelis in Western countries. Abou Hakam, a Front official, said “It is the right of the Palestinian revolution, even its duty, to aim blows at international Zionism wherever it is.” The National Liberal Party Council here condemned today Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s praise for the hijackers, calling it “an encouragement to piracy.”