A military tribunal today imposed life imprisonment on five of seven El Fatah members found guilty of placing a bomb, last October, in the Zion, a Jerusalem movie house. The terrorist quintet also was found guilty of blowing up a United Nations antenna on the Government House in Jerusalem.
The sixth defendant was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and the seventh to eight years’ imprisonment after the court decided they aided the El Fatah members but did not belong to the organization.
Among the five members was an African girl, Fatma Nafassawi, who had carried the bomb into the movie house. The court said it exercised mercy in her case by not imposing capital punishment, because the charge against her was the gravest – that of placing a bomb in a public place and knowing the deadly results it could cause. Following sentencing, the girl and another Fatah member appeared unmoved and uninterested. Other defendants seemed bewildered while two started crying.
This week the second trial of two others facing the same charges got underway before the same tribunal. The trial of Dr. Nur, head of the group, has been scheduled for next week.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
