GENOA, Italy -- Four West Germans were convicted today of staging a pro-Palestinian demonstration during the Achille Lauro trial and were given three-month suspended sentences.
The court also absolved the four of the more serious charge of defending terrorism on grounds of insufficident evidence.
The four refused to answer any questions in court or during their confinement.
The prosecution had demanded sentences of four years and expulsion from Italy after the sentences were served.
The court sentenced Petra Haack, 32, of Kiel; Gabrielle Scharenberg, 25, and Dirk Zieseniss, 24, both of Hanover; and Wolfgang Struwe, 24, of Bielefeld to three months in prison. The sentences were suspended and the court ordered them released immediately.
Police identified Haack as the woman who stood up at the first session of the Achille Lauro trial June 18 and shouted, 'Comrades, we are here to express support for the Palestinian revolution. OK?'
Three others began chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and trying to distribute leaflets.
Police carried them from the courtroom as they shouted 'Long live Palestine.'
After the disrpution, police tightened the already stiff security in and around the courtroom and assigned plainclothesmen to mingle with spectators.
Fourteen Palestinians and a Greek, charged in last October's hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt, are in their send week of trial.
Five defendants are in custody and the other 10 are being tried in their absence.
