Mohammed Cartoons Made Them Do It

The dreaded cartoons of blasphemy claim a couple of members of the Religion of Peace, one of them appropriately named Jihad. Of course, these peaceful men just wanted to send a message and really didn't intend any harm.

Sure.

Cologne Suitcase Bombers Get Long Sentences

Two Lebanese men who tried but failed to detonate bombs on two trains in Germany in 2006 have been sentenced to 12 years and life in jail respectively.

The men made the bombs from tanks filled with propane gas and crude detonators, hid them in suitcases and placed them on two German regional trains in Cologne station in July 2006. The triggers went off but failed to detonate the canisters. German authorities said they could have caused many deaths if they had.

A court in Beirut sentenced Jihad Hamad, 22, to 12 years in prison on Tuesday. It also sentenced his accomplice Youssef Mohammed el-Hajdib, 23, to life in prison, even though el-Hajdib is in custody in Germany, where he went on trial on Tuesday in a court in Düsseldorf. Lebanon's judicial system allows courts to try Lebanese citizens suspected of committing a crime abroad.

Hamad said the plot was intended as revenge for cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (more...) 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 as an affirmation of the right to free speech.

At the start of the trial in Düsseldorf, prosecutor Horst Salzmann accused el-Hajdib of planning the attacks together with Hamad in April 2006 in a bid to "kill an indeterminate number of people."

More here.

The identical suitcase bombs were fitted with timers set to go off 10 minutes before the trains arrived in Dortmund and Koblenz respectively.

Police said they failed to detonate because of a construction flaw.

Hamad, who fled to Lebanon and gave himself up to police last year, admitted helping to plant the bombs.

Three other men on trial in the Lebanese capital Beirut were acquitted.