GENOA, Italy -- The trial of 15 people accused in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro was postponed Friday while the judge considers whether to allow a member of the Communist Party to leave the jury.
Judge Lino Monteverde did not say why Communist Party member Silvio Ferrari made the request, but the judge adjourned until Tuesday the trial of 14 Arabs and one Greek accused of the Oct. 7-9, 1985, hijacking.
The judge's ruling, coming on the eighth day of the case, also postponed a plea for damages by Lisa and Ilse Klinghoffer, daughters of Leon Klinghoffer, 69, an invalid American passenger slain during the hijacking.
With the main trial postponed, Monteverde began a separate trial for four West Germans who disrupted the first session of the hijackers trial June 18 by staging a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
The four West Germans -- Petra Haack, Gabrielle Scharenberg and their male companions Wolfgang Struwe and Dirk Zieseniss -- are charged with 'the moral defense of crimes and disrupting court procedure.'
The West Germans have been jailed since June 18, when they stood up in court soon after the trial began and shouted, 'Comrades, we are here to express support for the Palestine revolution.'
Defense lawyer Giuseppe Pelazza called for an immediate adjournment on grounds that 20 West German supporters were prevented from entering the court and then detained by police for questioning.
The eighth session of the trial lasted only a few minutes before the judge announced jury member Ferrari, head of the Communist Party group on the Genoa provincial council, had asked to be relieved of his duties.
The judge did not explain the motive for Ferrari's request.
But later Ferrari told reporters that Genoa's chief public prosecutor sent him a letter 'inviting' him to step down on grounds he has been or would be pressured on his decision in the trial by another communist politician, Mazzarello Graziano, Genoa's provincial secretary of the Communist Party.
'It seems the world is divided between those who want to impose their opinions on others and those who have to submit,' Ferrari said.
Before the adjournment, Lawyer Alfredo Biondi, representing Ilsa Klinghoffer before the court, said of their damage claim: 'We want to get at the PLO's safe.'
The judge adjourned the hijack trial until 9 a.m. Tuesday to give him time to decide whether to accept Ferrari's request. If the judge dismisses Ferrari his place will be taken on the six-person jury by one of six alternates.
