Dusseldorf, Germany - A Lebanese student, who faces a verdict next week from a German court on terrorist bombing charges, was backed in his innocence plea Wednesday by his fellow conspirator.

Youssef al-Hajj Dib, 24, has insisted at the trial in Dusseldorf, Germany that the July 31, 2006 deposition of bombs on two German trains was a hoax by the two men, with no intent to kill.

Federal prosecutors have demanded life in prison for al-Hajj Dib, saying the bombs only did not explode because the gas in them had been wrongly mixed. Police said the detonators fired and the devices fully functioned in every other way.

A defence lawyer said Jihad Hamad, the other self-admitted conspirator, had retracted the confession that led to a 12-year jail term in Lebanon and now stated that the attack had been a hoax.

The surprise disclosure came as the defence had the floor before judges retire to consider their November 18 verdict. The attack was Germany's worst brush ever with Islamist-inspired terrorism, prosecutors say.

The lawyer, who met with Hamad in jail, quoted him as saying it was "obvious the bombs were not meant to explode."

Hamad claimed he was beaten in custody and a Lebanese prosecutor personally threatened to have him tortured. He had also been told his family would be summoned to see authorities if he told German investigators anything about being hit or threatened.

According to the lawyer, Hamad said he and al-Hajj Dib had been made "scapegoats in a German theatre show" which was "being performed as a favour to the Americans."

But a German federal prosecutor in court responded that it was "an interview with an evidential value of just about zero."

The two men were filmed by closed-circuit TV at Cologne station as they carried suitcases with the time-bombs inside aboard trains going in opposite directions. Both immediately flew out of country. Lost-property staff discovered the two unexploded bombs. (dpa)