Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE= 12/18/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= INDIA / PARLIAMENT / S&L

NUMBER=2-297564

BYLINE= JIM TEEPLE

DATELINE= NEW DELHI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: An Indian anti-terrorism court has sentenced three men to death

on charges related to an attack on the Indian parliament, last year. A

female co-defendant was sentenced to five years in prison. V-O-A's Jim Teeple has details from New Delhi.

TEXT: Earlier this week, Justice S-N Dhingra convicted three of the

four defendants of waging war against the state and of plotting to

assassinate the prime minister, interior minister and other officials.

Wednesday, the judge sentenced the three to death by hanging.

The fourth defendant -- the wife of one of the three men -- was found guilty

of not disclosing information to the police and was sentenced to five years

imprisonment.

None of the four took part in the attack on parliament, last December, that killed 14 people, including the five gunmen who carried it out. However, the four were found guilty of helping to plan the attack.

The defendents were tried and convicted under a new anti-terrorism law. The

three men sentenced to death were also given life terms, which they will

serve if their death sentences are overturned on appeal.

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All four are Indian citizens. Indian prosecutors say two of the men -- Mohammed Azfal and Shaukat Hussain -- are from Indian Kashmir and belong

to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a hardline Islamic militant organization. The

third man sentenced to death, Abdul Rehman Geelani, was a college professor

in New Delhi.

Indian prosecutors have charged three others in the parliament attack --

including Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed, who was

released from months of house arrest last week by a Pakistani court. It said Pakistani authorities failed to justify his detention.

India has long claimed the attack on its parliament was backed by Pakistan -- a charge Pakistan strongly denies. Both countries mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops in the months following the attack.

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