Syria Had Role in W. Berlin Bombing, Defendant Says

A 39-year-old Palestinian testified today that he followed Syrian instructions in blowing up the offices of a civic group March 29 with a suitcase bomb smuggled into West Berlin.

Farouk Salameh said he and Ahmad Nawaf Hasi, brother of the man convicted in London of trying to blow up an Israeli jetliner, received instructions from Damascus to pick up a bomb from the Syrian Embassy in East Berlin to blow up the German-Arab Society offices.

The terrorism trial of Salameh and Hasi, accused in the March 29 bombing, opened today under heavy security. Nine people were injured in the bombing, four of them seriously.

Before Nightclub Blast

The blast occurred just one week before another terrorist bomb ripped through the city’s LaBelle nightclub, mortally wounding two U.S. soldiers and a civilian woman and injuring another 230 people. Authorities suspect the two in the blast although the United States blamed Libya in the bombing and staged retaliatory attacks.

Hasi, 35, is the brother of Nazar Hindawi, the man convicted in London of plotting to smuggle a time bomb aboard an Israeli jetliner with Syrian complicity. Hindawi has been accused in an arrest warrant of involvement in the German-Arab Society blast.

Britain severed relations with Damascus hours after Hindawi’s conviction last month and asked its allies to follow suit.

The Berlin state court believes it will be able to hand down a verdict by Nov. 24 because Salameh and Hasi reportedly confessed to the civic group bombing during questioning.

But when Hasi testified today, he shouted and screamed that his interrogators had subjected him to “six months of mental torture” in pretrial custody.

“Their methods were deliberate, so that statements could be obtained the way they wanted them,” he shouted.

Hasi claimed that drugs were mixed with his food to make him suicidal and that authorities piped voices into his cell to further unnerve him.

Suitcase of Explosives

Salameh said he and Hindawi traveled to Damascus in January and were told to tell Hasi he should expect a secret telephone call in February. The caller instructed the duo to visit the Syrian Embassy in East Berlin, Salameh said. He said they were given a suitcase with explosives in it and smuggled it into West Berlin.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s government has said that the outcome of the Berlin trial will influence its decision on sanctions against Syria.