Germany seeks life sentence for bomb plot suspect
German prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a life sentence for one of two Lebanese men accused of trying to set off bombs on German trains two years ago. Skip related content
The planned attacks in western Germany could have caused up to 75 casualties, the state prosecutors told a court in Duesseldorf on Wednesday.
The two Lebanese men have already been sentenced by a Beirut court — one to life in prison and one to 12 years behind bars — for their roles in the plot, which failed when the crude bombs packed into suitcases did not detonate.
Youssef al-Haj Deeb, who was given the life sentence in Lebanon in December although he was being held in Germany at the time, is now standing trial in Germany and a verdict is due in November.
Duscha Gmel, prosecuting, said Haj Deeb, 24, had been the driving force behind the planned attacks which he had wanted to carry out with an accomplice. She demanded a life sentence.
"Germany has never been so close to an Islamist attack," said Gmel.
Prosecutors say the two men boarded two trains in Cologne, one headed for Koblenz, one for Dortmund, in July 2006 with suitcases containing tanks of propane gas and crude detonators.
The bombs failed to go off due to a technical fault.
Both men were filmed by video cameras at the station.
The plot shocked Germany, which, unlike European countries such as Britain and Spain, has not experienced a major militant attack in recent years.
German prosecutors say the plot was meant to be an act of revenge for cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad that were first published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 and sparked protests across the Muslim world.
European publications including a German newspaper reprinted the cartoons to highlight the right to free speech.