Terrorist on Trial

Whether because of youth or ignorance, Kozo Okamoto, 24, seemed not to comprehend last week the sober deja vu of his appearance before a military tribunal in a barracks near Tel Aviv. Okamoto stood before the three-officer court accused in the killing of 26 people and the wounding of 72 others in a terrorist attack at Tel Aviv's Lod International Airport in which his two accomplices were also killed (TIME, June 12). The circumstances, however --a stern tribunal, spartan courtroom, TV lights, well-frisked audience of international journalists--replayed the surroundings in which Adolf Eichmann stood trial eleven years ago. The major difference: Eichmann, the man in the glass booth,* stood accused of murdering not 26 people but 6,000,000.

At the conclusion of his nine-month trial, Eichmann was hanged. It is the only time in Israeli history that the death penalty has been carried out. Okamoto, after almost certainly being found guilty this week, faces the same fate, barring a commutation of his sentence by the Israeli Chief of Staff, General David Elazar, or clemency from President Zalman Shazar. Unlike Eichmann, who to the very end denied personal responsibility for the genocide of European Jews, the effusive, lantern-jawed Okamoto positively gloried in his actions. "Revolutionary warfare is a war of justice," he told the court in an excitable singsong baritone that had to be cut off frequently to allow translation into Hebrew and English. "And so I admit very frankly what I have done." The revolution will go on, he insisted. "In Washington and New York, the houses of simple folk must be destroyed. That is how they will be able to feel the sweeping torrent of world revolution. The slaughter of human beings is inevitable."

The facts of the charges against Okamoto--firing guns and illegally tossing grenades with intent to kill people and to damage property, and working for an illegal organization--were never in doubt. After his arrest at Lod seven weeks ago, Okamoto was confined for a period in Ramie prison, where Eichmann had also been held. Okamoto, who was manacled while sleeping to prevent self-strangulation, spent much of his time while awaiting trial composing his confession. "I did discharge arms with two other people whose names I have forgotten," he told the court. "I do not know how many people I killed. I fired not only at visitors and tourists but at policemen as well."

Okamoto's court-appointed defense counsel, Max Kritzman, a Chicago-born, British-trained attorney who is considered one of Israel's most brilliant criminal lawyers, requested a psychiatric examination to test his client's sanity. Okamoto tried to interrupt proceedings, forcing Kritzman at one point to throw up his hands and complain that "this man will not cooperate." The three judges rejected the request and accepted the confession. The court's only hesitation was over the charge that Okamoto had confessed as a result of undue influence. Major General Rehavam Ze'evi admitted that he had promised the terrorist a pistol and one bullet "for his own personal use" in return for a confession. "I want to follow them," Okamoto had said repeatedly of his two dead companions. But Ze'evi insisted that he had never meant to honor his promise. "I had no intention of keeping the agreement," the general said. "It was only bait." Accepting his word, the court removed the last obstacle to the death penalty that Okamoto has been demanding ever since his capture.

* Which was not used for Okamoto because security around him was considered foolproof and also because the Israelis did not want to evoke unnecessary comparison with the Eichmann trial.

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