Terrorist Group Puts French Hostage ‘On Trial’

BEIRUT — A pro-Iranian terrorist organization said Saturday that it has begun trying a French hostage and “will hand down the just sentence to execute him within 48 hours.”

The threat from the underground Muslim group called the Revolutionary Justice Organization came in a two-page handwritten Arabic statement delivered at nightfall to the independent Beirut newspaper An Nahar. The statement was accompanied by a photograph of French hostage Jean-Louis Normandin.

A previous approximate deadline for the killing of Normandin passed earlier Saturday.

Revolutionary Justice warned in a statement delivered to a Western news agency in Beirut on Thursday that Normandin would be killed in 48 hours if the French government did not clarify comments made Tuesday by French President Francois Mitterrand.

In Paris on Saturday, the French Ministry of External Relations issued a statement that appeared to go part way toward meeting the kidnapers’ demands and called for Normandin to be freed.

The ministry said France hoped to maintain good relations with all the Middle East and Iran and was “surprised at the interpretations” the kidnapers gave to Mitterrand’s remarks last week.

It said France favors “the rights and justice of the people of the countries in the region” and wanted “in particular” to pursue attempts begun last April to normalize relations with Iran.

The statement called on “those who are holding the young French citizen, who is in no way involved in the events of the Middle East, to take heed of the appeal made Friday by his father and that his life be spared.”

Marc Normandin, Jean-Louis’ father, appeared on French television to appeal to the kidnapers to let his son live.

Normandin, 35, a lighting engineer with France’s Antenne-2 television station, was kidnaped March 8, 1986. Revolutionary Justice claimed responsibility for his abduction.

Saturday’s statement by Revolutionary Justice said France’s attitude amounted to a “war declaration.”

On Tuesday, Mitterrand appeared to reject the possibility of a pardon for convicted terrorist Annis Naccache, imprisoned for an attempted assassination of former Iranian Premier Shahpour Bakhtiar in Paris.

The newspaper Le Monde called this part of Mitterrand’s statement ambiguous. Revolutionary Justice subsequently demanded clarification.

Mitterrand also said France would keep selling arms to Iraq, Iran’s enemy in the 6 1/2-year-old Persian Gulf War.

“Because of failure to . . . (clarify) Mitterrand’s statement and because of the war declaration, Normandin has been committed for trial,” the statement said.

“We will hand down the just sentence to execute him within 48 hours after the completion of his trial’s procedure,” it added.

Saturday’s communique was dropped at An Nahar’s offices at 8 p.m. This suggests the death deadline is the same hour on Monday.

The photograph showed the bearded Normandin from the chest up in a dark track suit.

The statement said French authorities were to blame for the “end of the chances of dialogue and peace.”

The statement said, “They sometimes demand to trade the hostages for money and sometimes for arms, industrial and economic projects. . . . We have reached agreements. . . . But plenty of time had since been lost by endless efforts to wake French officials out of their dreams of grandeur, the dreams that France still is a superpower.”

Five other Frenchmen are held hostage in Lebanon by various groups, all believed to be pro-Iranian.

In all, 26 foreigners are missing and believed kidnaped in Lebanon, including eight Americans and Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite.