13-Year Term for Kidnaper Hamadi : West German Court Finds He Abducted 2 in Bid to Aid Brother

Lebanese-born Abbas Ali Hamadi was found guilty Tuesday of kidnaping two West Germans in Beirut and was sentenced to 13 years in prison--a term longer than the prosecution had demanded.

The judge said that Hamadi, 29, along with other radical Muslim accomplices, abducted Rudolf Cordes and Alfred Schmidt to force Bonn not to extradite his brother, Mohammed Ali Hamadi, 23, to the United States to face murder and hijacking charges.

“These were neurotic goals born of a wayward sense of ethics,” said Judge Klaus Arend, summing up the decision in a case that has been closely scrutinized by foreign governments. “This is terrorism without any moral legitimacy.”

The U.S. State Department praised the court’s decision, saying it “sends a clear signal to terrorists. We believe that strong punishment for terrorists is essential.”

U.S. officials in Bonn last week voiced “surprise and dismay” over a decision by a Frankfurt court to refer Mohammed Hamadi’s case to a juvenile court due to his age at the time of the June, 1985, hijacking of TWA Flight 847.

The Rome-to-Athens flight was finally diverted to Beirut, where American Navy diver Robert D. Stethem was killed and 39 American hostages were held for 16 days by the Muslim fundamentalist hijackers, allegedly including Mohammed Hamadi.

The prosecution had asked for 11 1/2 years for the counts of kidnaping, attempted coercion of the government and illegal possession of explosives against Abbas Hamadi. It is very rare in West Germany for judges to give a longer sentence than the prosecution demands.

The defense, which admitted the lesser explosives charge, immediately filed an appeal.

Schmidt was released last September, whereas Cordes has now spent 15 months in captivity.

Arend appealed to the kidnapers to release Cordes but said the five judges reached their verdict without regard to pressure from governments or guerrilla groups.

“The whole story put a heavy burden on the court, but has not been able to influence the course of justice,” he said. “The only thing which can fight naked violence is the impartial application of justice.”

But he added: “The state is not intransigent. If Rudolf Cordes is released unharmed and if Abbas Hamadi leads a remorseful and irreproachable life (in prison), then the option of a release ahead of time will be considered.”

Hamadi, a West German citizen since 1984, sat impassively in the top-security court, sometimes shaking his bowed head or whispering to his two guards.

The judge said Hamadi flew to Beirut in January, 1987, to organize reprisals after his brother was arrested at Frankfurt airport and later charged in the 1985 TWA hijacking and the murder of Stethem.

Abbas Hamadi was arrested on his return to West Germany.

The Bonn government turned down a U.S. request to extradite Mohammed Hamadi, who is due to stand trial in West Germany in the next few months. A chief adviser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl admitted in court that the decision was taken under duress.

The judge said the kidnapings were part of a chain of violence by fundamentalists spiritually influenced by Iran.