Lebanese gets life term in train case

A Lebanese man accused of planting faulty suitcase bombs on two German trains was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison. Youssef Mohamad Hajdib, 24, was one of two main suspects accused of planting the bombs at Cologne’s main station in July 2006.

The bombs’ triggers went off, but the explosives did not detonate and no one was harmed.

Hajdib was arrested the next month in the northern German port city of Kiel; another suspect, Jihad Hamad, fled to his native Lebanon and has been sentenced to 12 years in prison there.

Hajdib insisted that the bombs were deliberately faulty. However, judges pointed to testimony by Hamad at his trial in Lebanon that the pair had wanted to kill.