Lebanese identifies self in video at train bomb plot trial
DUESSELDORF, Germany (AFP) — A Lebanese man on trial over a failed plot to bomb two German trains admitted Wednesday that he was one of the men seen on security cameras placing suspect suitcases in rail cars.
Yusef Mohammed al-Hajj Dib, 23, identified himself and an accomplice convicted Tuesday in Lebanon in video footage recorded in July last year at the main train station in the western city of Cologne.
"Yes, that's me," he said when asked by the judge about the figure seen in the grainy images wearing a German football jersey.
Dib said he was a fan of the captain of Germany's national team, Michael Ballack, whose number was emblazoned on the jersey.
"Yes, I like the way he plays -- he is very good," he said.
Dib also picked out the image of Jihad Hamad, also 23, who was sentenced in Beirut to 12 years in prison for his part in the botched attack.
The Lebanese court also convicted Dib and imposed the death penalty before commuting the sentence to life imprisonment.
Prosecutors say Dib and Hamad placed suitcases containing homemade explosives on two trains in Cologne.
The devices failed to explode because of faulty detonators, averting an almost certain bloodbath in what German authorities said was a bid to copy deadly train blasts in Madrid in 2004 and London the following year.
Hamad had said the plot was revenge for satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed published in European newspapers.
Dib's lawyers said Wednesday he would testify before the court in Duesseldorf next month on the charges against him.
