Defendant Won’t Confirm Linking Bomb to Syrians

One of two Jordanians charged with planting a bomb outside the German-Arab Friendship Society here refused Tuesday to confirm part of his pretrial testimony implicating Syria in the terrorist act.

In the second day of the trial of the two men charged with the March 29 bombing, which injured nine people, Ahmed Nawaf Mansour Hasi heard further reading of testimony that he gave police after his arrest, in which he confessed to the bombing and said Syrian officials helped him plan it.

However, when questioned by the prosecution Tuesday, Hasi would not confirm to the court that he obtained the bomb from the Syrian Embassy in East Berlin.

‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’

“I neither confirm nor deny that I went to the Syrian Embassy to collect a bomb,” the 35-year-old Hasi said.

Hasi is the brother of Nezar Hindawi, the Jordanian convicted in a British court of the attempted bombing of an Israeli airliner in London on April 17.

Hindawi’s trial included evidence of Syrian involvement in the attempted bombing that Britain regarded as convincing enough to cause it to break off diplomatic relations with Syria. In addition, testimony in the current trial has implicated Hindawi in the bombing of the friendship society.

On Monday, the first day of the trial, Hasi’s co-defendant, Farouk Salameh, 39, testified that he was following Syrian instructions when he and Hasi bombed the civic group’s offices. On Tuesday, Salameh gave further details of a trip that he said he and Hindawi made to Damascus earlier this year, before the bombing.

Met at Airport

They were met at the Damascus airport, Salameh testified, by an official Syrian car and taken to a villa that he believed was a secret police building.

The Syrians, he said, asked him to take a suitcase bomb back to West Berlin, but he refused. Instead, he said, he brought back a letter for his friend Hasi, with instructions for contacting the Syrian Embassy in East Berlin.

Hasi, in his pretrial statement, said his brother persuaded him to try to blow up the German-Arab society, telling him that the group was cooperating secretly with Israel. According to the statement, it was Hindawi who first put Hasi and Salameh in contact with the Syrians.

The Syrian government has denied any involvement in the bomb plot.

Following instructions obtained by Salameh in Damascus, Hasi said in his pretrial statement, he contacted the Syrian Embassy in East Berlin, talking to a man known as Haitam Said, who used the code name Abu Ahmed.

Given Suitcase Bomb

Said, who was identified as a Syrian intelligence officer at Hindawi’s trial in London, invited Hasi to the embassy and gave him the suitcase bomb, the statement said.

A week later, Hasi said in the statement, he smuggled the bag into West Berlin in his car and there, after two unsuccessful attempts, detonated it at the friendship society.

Hasi is also suspected, but not charged, in the bombing of the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin on April 2, which killed two American soldiers and a Turkish woman and wounded more than 200 others. President Reagan accused Libya of responsibility for the disco attack, using that as justification for the U.S. air attack on Libya on April 15.

After outbursts in court Monday, Hasi appeared more restrained Tuesday, although he still charged that his prison guards were tormenting him by piping “voices” and “Arab music” into his cell.

The five-member judicial panel will take more testimony Thursday and next Monday. According to court aides, it may reach a verdict Monday afternoon.