SENTENCES PRONOUNCED FOR INDICTEES IN MOSTAR CAR-BOMB CASE

( Editorial: --> 1307 ) SARAJEVO, Sept 18 (Hina) - The Zenica Canton Court has completed the trial of six foreign nationals suspected of planting a car bomb in western Mostar on September 18, 1997. The first indictee, Ahmed Zahair, alias Handala, was sentenced to ten years in prison on Wednesday, the Sarajevo media reported. The 34-year-old Zahair, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, is still at large and was sentenced in absentia. The second indictee, Ali Ahmad Ali Hamad Alia, a 27-year-old Bahraini, was sentenced to eight years and Nebil Ali Ali Hila from Yemen to six years in prison. The trial chamber, which was presided by judge Faik Spahic, acquitted Khaled El Seif, a Saudi Arabian, and Abdullah Ba Awra from Kuwait, saying the presented evidence had failed to confirm their responsibility for the Mostar explosion. The three indictees drove a stolen car with 150kg of explosive to Mostar and left it at a parking lot near a police station. The explosion that followed around midnight on September 18 severely wounded three people, inflicted light injuries on another 40 people, and damaged 13 business facilities, 94 flats and 96 cars. The Zenica court decided that the offence comitted was a criminal act against general security of people and property and not an act of terrorism, which was insisted on by the prosecution. According to judge Spahic, the first accused Handala, who was the instigator of the crime, was motivated by a desire for revenge. Possible appeals by the defence and prosecution will be considered by the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) rml 181153 MET sep 98