Rudolf Cordes

The West German government, formally rejecting a U.S. demand for extradition, announced Wednesday that it will try Mohammed Ali Hamadi, the accused hijacker of an American airliner, in a West German court. Government spokesman Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Hamadi, a 22-year-old Lebanese Shia Muslim, will be tried as soon as possible on charges of air piracy, murder and carrying explosives. U.S. officials, including Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, expressed satisfaction over the announcement.

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."

Kidnapers forced two more foreigners into a car at gunpoint today while Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite negotiated for a fourth day with captors of American hostages. Police said they had unconfirmed reports that the latest kidnap victims were West Germans who called on their embassy in West Beirut minutes before they were abducted at 9:30 a.m. on Pavillon Street near Hamra, the Muslim sector's commercial district.

A West German engineer was kidnaped today in the second seizure of a West German citizen in Beirut in five days, and a PLO official warned in Bonn that German hostages will be killed if a Palestinian hijacking suspect is extradited to the United States as requested. The Bonn government and the West German Embassy in Beirut declined to say if the latest abduction, claimed in an anonymous telephone call, is linked to the U.S. request that Bonn extradite accused TWA hijacker Mohammed Ali Hamadi.

A court today convicted Abbas Ali Hamadi and sentenced him to 13 years in prison for complicity in kidnaping two Germans in Lebanon in a scheme to keep West Germany from extraditing his brother to the United States on murder and hijacking charges. Judge Klaus Arend, in pronouncing Hamadi, 29, guilty of kidnaping, attempted blackmail of the West German government and possessing explosives, defied threats made by the kidnapers against one German hostage still held.

The hostage crisis team of the West German government met Thursday in emergency session as Syrian troops in Lebanon searched for the latest German kidnap victim. Authorities here said they are seeking help from the governments of Syria and Iran. Both are believed to have contacts with the militant Shia Muslim group that is said to be responsible for Wednesday's abduction in Beirut.

A judge hearing the trial of accused kidnaper Abbas Ali Hamadi declared Wednesday that his court will not be intimidated by threats from a militant group in Beirut that is holding a West German businessman hostage. On the second day of Hamadi's trial in a Duesseldorf courtroom, Judge Klaus Arend spoke out in response to a written threat from the group. At the same time, West German authorities stepped up security at airports that might be targeted by terrorists.

The West German government today acknowledged for the first time that the kidnaping of a German in Beirut was linked to the arrest of an Arab hijack suspect, and the foreign minister reportedly contacted Iran and Syria about freeing the hostage.

A second West German national was reported Wednesday to have been kidnaped in Lebanon, possibly complicating Bonn's plans to extradite to the United States for trial a Lebanese man arrested in connection with the hijacking of a Trans World Airlines jetliner in 1985. Reports from Lebanon indicate that Alfred Schmidt, 46, a biomedical engineer with Siemens, the big West German electronics firm, was abducted overnight from his hotel in West Beirut.

The government has rejected a U.S. request for extradition of accused airline hijacker Mohammed Ali Hamadi and will put him on trial in West Germany for murder and other charges, official sources here said Monday. The move apparently stems from Bonn's fear that kidnapers of two West German businessmen will carry out their threat to kill their captives if Hamadi is extradited to the United States.