Bonn Arrests Brother of Jailed Suspect : West Germany Also Detains 4 Arabs in Beirut Kidnapings

Authorities arrested the brother of jailed TWA hijacking suspect Mohammed Ali Hamadi at Frankfurt Airport and also brought in four Arabs suspected of links to retribution kidnapings in Lebanon, news reports said today.

Ali Abbas Hamadi, 28, an unemployed welder who obtained German citizenship in 1984 and has a wife and family in West Germany, was arrested at the airport late Monday after returning from Beirut, the West German television network ZDF, the news agency DPA and the Bild newspaper reported, citing sources.

Sources refused to say what offenses Ali Abbas Hamadi or the other men are believed to have committed.

The brother’s German wife said her husband had been in Beirut for a short period after his brother’s arrest.

A third Hamadi brother, Abdul Hadi Hamadi, is said to be security chief in Lebanon of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God, the same group that the United States has blamed for the TWA hijacking.

4 Other Arrests

The West German media have speculated that Abdul Hadi Hamadi masterminded the retribution kidnapings of two Germans in Beirut.

Police in the western state of Saarland arrested four other Arabs in connection with the kidnapings, ZDF said.

Die Welt newspaper identified some of those arrested in Saarland as other relatives of Mohammed Ali Hamadi, 22, the hijack suspect, and said one person was shot and slightly wounded by police in the apprehensions.

Citing judicial branch sources, Die Welt said the wave of arrests was based on the suspicion that the suspects were somehow involved in the kidnapings of the two Germans to force West Germany to free the hijack suspect.

The Interior Ministry and the office of Atty. Gen. Kurt Rebmann, who is in charge of the hostage investigation, declined comment on the developments.

2 Germans Kidnaped

Rudolf Cordes, 53, an executive with the Hoechst chemical company, and Siemens technician Alfred Schmidt, 47, were kidnaped in Muslim West Beirut after the Jan. 13 arrest at Frankfurt Airport of the accused hijacker.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi was apprehended on his arrival from Beirut when authorities discovered liquid explosive in his luggage and found that his passport was forged. From fingerprints on an international arrest warrant, he was identified as one of the men wanted for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner.

The United States has formally requested Mohammed Ali Hamadi’s extradition to face charges of air piracy and the murder of Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, a passenger shot during the 17-day hijacking in Beirut.

Cordes’ kidnapers have demanded the release of Hamadi in exchange for freedom for the Germans, and West Germany is reluctant to extradite Hamadi as long as two of its citizens are apparently being held hostage.