The West German government rejected new demands to free the Hamadei brothers, who arc serving sentences in West Germany for terrorist acts The demands were received Monday from an anonymous group in Lebanon, which charged that the brothers were being tortured and threatened retaliation.
The Hamadeis are Shi’ite Moslems who are believed to be members of the pro-Iranian terrorist organization Hezbollah, or Party of God.
A West German Interior Ministry spokesman pointed out that only the courts, not the government, have authority to impose sentences or release prisoners.
Mohammed Hamadei and his brother, Abbas, were arrested separately in 1987. A Frankfurt court sentenced Mohammed to life imprisonment last year, for the June 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner on a flight from Athens to Rome. U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem was murdered during that hijacking.
Bonn was criticized for refusing a U.S. extradition request. Abbas drew a 13-year sentence in 1988 for taking two West German nationals hostage in Lebanon to hold for the release of his brother.
The trials of both Hamadeis were closely observed by the United States and other countries as tests of West Germany’s resolve to fight international terrorism.
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