Terrorism in Germany

Minutes after the trial opened under tight security, judge Michel Abu Arraj decided to adjourn the hearing until May 18 after the defense said the Beirut criminal court was not entitled to try the four suspects in Lebanese custody.

Defense attorney Fawaz Zakaria said the four should be tried in northern Lebanon where they live and where they were arrested by Lebanese authorities on Sept. 4.

The four men in the dock are the suspected mastermind Jihad Hamad, as well as Khaled al-Hajj Dib, Ayman Hawwa and Khalil Bubu, judicial sources said.

The Beirut court also issued arrest warrants for Saddam al-Hajj Dib, who remains at large, and his brother Youssef Mohammed al-Hajj Dib, who is in custody in Germany.

Both are being tried in absentia.

Possible initiation test

Hamad has confessed under judicial interrogation to having placed a suitcase containing explosives on a train in Germany last July, Lebanese judicial sources said.

"The intention was not to kill people, but to avenge any harm done to Muslims after the publication in Denmark of cartoons that were harmful to the Prophet Mohammed," Hamad was quoted as saying.

German federal police said the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Western and some Arab media had been the "detonator" which pushed the gang to organize a plot to bomb German trains on July 31.

However, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel has reported that the attempted bombing was an initiation rest for al Qaeda recruitment in Iraq.

The plan failed when bombs concealed on two regional trains did not explode because of faulty detonators.