Hezbollah Courier Guilty of Role in Cyprus Terror Plot
By NICHOLAS KULISH
BERLIN - In a decision that could have significant repercussions for
Hezbollah's operations in Europe, a court in Cyprus on Thursday found a man
guilty of participating in a plot to attack Israeli tourists on vacation in
Cyprus, part of a conspiracy similar to a deadly bombing last July in
Bulgaria.
The court found the man, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Swedish-Lebanese
citizen, guilty on five of the eight charges against him, including
participation in a criminal organization. The three others were conspiracy
charges, which the ruling said were already covered under the other counts.
Mr. Yaacoub will be sentenced at a separate hearing.
"It has been proven that Hezbollah is an organization that operates under
complete secrecy," the head of the three-judge panel that ruled on the case,
Tasia Psara-Miltiadou, said in court Thursday. "There is no doubt that this
group has multiple members and proceeds with various activities including
military training of its members., Therefore, the court rules that Hezbollah
acts as a criminal organization."
Mr. Yaacoub admitted in court last month that he was a member of Hezbollah,
a Shiite militant group, and that he was trained in the use of weapons and
dispatched around Europe on missions as a courier and scout for the
organization. The court rejected his assertion that he had no idea why his
handlers had asked him to monitor the arrival times of flights from Israel
and to track locations of Israeli tourists in Cyprus.
The conviction is likely to give further impetus to efforts to have the
group designated a terrorist organization by the European Union. Experts say
that in the legalistic, bureaucratic world of Brussels, a court conviction
holds significantly more weight than a declaration by a government or an
intelligence report.
Israel and the United States have been pressing hard for European allies to
list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The fact that Mr. Yaacoub is a
European citizen and that he acknowledged performing clandestine work in
France and the Netherlands as well as Cyprus only raises the pressure
further.
But that decision is foremost a political one, and it requires the unanimous
agreement of all 27 European Union states. France in particular has resisted
designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, with officials saying it
is necessary to keep lines of communication open with the group, which is
also a major force in politics and social services in Lebanon.
Mr. Yaacoub was arrested in July 2012 in the port city of Limassol. During
interrogation by the police, he first insisted that he was a trader
traveling in Cyprus for business. After days of questioning he said that
that was a cover story and that he was performing surveillance for
Hezbollah.
His defense lawyer argued that he had changed his story because he was
frightened and intimidated by the police and that details in his sworn
statements had been fabricated. The court ruled that his statements to the
police were accurate.
Andreas Riris contributed reporting from Limassol, Cyprus.
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