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PLO court

sentences

Hamas men

JERUSALEM: A court in Palestinian-ruled Jericho has convicted two members of the militant Hamas group of security offences, jailing one man for 12 years and imposing a seven-year term on the other, a PLO official said on Saturday.

The official, a senior security officer, said Abdel Majid Dudin and Rushdie al-Khatib belonged to a Hamas network responsible for a suicide bombing that killed four passengers on a Jerusalem bus on Monday.

Dudin was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Khatib to seven years during the trial on Friday night, said the official. Both men were not residents of Jericho and had gone to the enclave to hide from Israeli security forces, he added.

Israel had insisted self-rule police hand the men over but Palestinian police refused, he said.-Reuter