Offer to Trade U.S. Hostages Is Renewed

Extremists holding three Americans and an Indian-born U.S. resident said Tuesday the health of one of the hostages, Alann Steen, continues to deteriorate “day after day,” and they reiterated their offer to swap the captives for 400 Arabs jailed in Israel.

A statement signed by the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine and delivered to the independent An Nahar newspaper accused the hostages of spying and said “investigations have begun into their crimes.”

The group said last week that Steen, 47, of Boston, one of the four professors kidnaped by gunmen from the private Beirut University College Jan. 24, was seriously ill. The latest statement said his health is worsening.

“The condition of Steen is deteriorating day after day despite continuous (medical) treatments given to him,” said the statement.

“We remind the public opinion of thousands of prisoners who died from ailment in the jails of the Israeli enemy. The death of Steen will not change our demand to free the 400 prisoners (still) alive,” said the group.

“All indications are moving us to punish them (the hostages) as long as the American Administration and the Israeli enemy do not respond to resolve their cause,” said the group in a statement accompanied by a photograph of hostage Jesse Turner, 39, of Boise, Ida.

The two other hostages are Robert Polhill, 53, of New York City, and Mithileshwar Singh, 60, the Indian-born U.S. resident.

In London, meanwhile, Frances Waite, wife of Anglican Church Envoy Terry Waite, who disappeared in Lebanon Jan 20, met Tuesday with Lebanese Druze militia leader Walid Jumblatt.

Jumblatt said in a television interview in London that he does not know where Waite is being held. He also said that Waite had been “overconfident” when he walked out on his bodyguards and went to meet members of the Shia extremist group Hezbollah, which is believed to be holding many of the hostages.

‘Too Risky for Me . . . ‘

Asked how long it might take to free Waite, Jumblatt said, “I don’t know. It is too risky for me to venture. I hope it will happen tomorrow but I just don’t know.”

In Bonn, government officials denied Tuesday that West Germany is considering freeing two Lebanese brothers suspected of terrorist activities in exchange for the release of two West German businessmen kidnaped in Beirut.

The Bonn officials were reacting to reports in the West German newspaper Bild and remarks in Washington on Monday by a U.S. official, who spoke of “disturbing indications” that the Bonn government was considering swapping Mohammed Ali Hamadi and Ali Abbas Hamadi for the two Germans. The West Germans spoke on condition of anonymity.

Other officials in Bonn said that such a swap would not be legal under German law because the United States requested the extradition of one brother, Mohammed Ali Hamadi, on air piracy and murder charges.

Hans-Hermann Eckert, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office, which is investigating the case, said Mohammed Ali Hamadi, who was arrested at Frankfurt airport Jan. 13 carrying explosive materials, faces charges under West German law. He also said that a Frankfurt court must rule on the U.S. extradition request before Bonn can act.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi is wanted in the United States on air piracy and murder charges in the June, 1985, hijacking of a TWA jetliner to Beirut. A U.S. Navy diver was killed and 39 Americans were held hostage 16 days during the affair.

Shortly after Mohammed Ali Hamadi’s arrest, West Germans Rudolf Cordes, 53, and Alfred Schmidt, 46, were kidnaped in the Lebanese capital.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi’s brother, Ali Abbas, a naturalized West German citizen, was arrested Jan. 26 in Frankfurt on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapings.