Palestinian Sought by U.S. Gets 7-Month Sentence in Greece

ATHENS — A Palestinian whose detention may have provoked the terrorist attack on a Greek cruise ship was sentenced to seven months in jail today for carrying a false passport.

Mohammed Rashid, wanted in the United States in the 1982 bombing of a Pan Am airliner in which one person died, told the court his last name was Hamdam and that he “had no connection” with the ship attack that killed 11 people and wounded dozens Monday in the Aegean Sea.

Greek officials have theorized the machine-gun and grenade attack by several gunmen who escaped from the ship was a botched attempt to seize hostages and demand the release of Rashid, who was arrested at Athens Airport after he entered the country on a false Syrian passport.

Following a two-day trial, a three-member court in Athens sentenced Rashid to seven months in jail.