Man In Trunk Seen As Offending Protocol

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30603, 20 November 1964, Page 13

Man In Trunk Seen As Offending Protocol

(N.Z P A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 19. Two newspapers here expressed concern at the effect on international conduct of the attempted hijacking from Rome to Cairo of a man locked in a trunk labelled as diplomatic baggage. Leading articles also made reference to Israel’s capture of Adolf Eichmann and recent treatment in Cairo of the Congo President. Mr Moise Tshombe. “The Times” (independent) said: “What matters is that the conduct of international relations has received another

degrading blow. ... If this sort of incident is repeated the demand for some curtailment of diplomatic privilege will grow and will be hard to resist.” The “Daily Telegraph” (independent Conservative) said: “The affair marks a fresh nadir in the widespread debasement of international behaviour.” It said that by convention intelligence agents’ activity was always disowned when discovered. “Does Egypt now expect this convention to be extended to gangster-kidnap-ping under cover of diplomatic privilege? Even for a country which was able to shrug off the recent arrest of President Tshombe this is asking too much of public opinion, if not of protocol.”

The “Guardian” (Liberal), also commenting on the case, remarked that it was difficult to be wholly serious about spies, and went on to say: “Israel and Egypt, of course, undoubtedly come top of the spying league table—a table decided, inevitably, not by the efficiency of spy systems, but by the measure of publicity accorded to their failures... having notched up the capture of Eichmann one is tempted to credit the Israelis with more subtlety than their Egyptian rivals. . . . “If the story is true (and who can tell with espionage?) there is an element of macabre horror in the description of Eichmann leaving Argentina disguised ‘as a wealthy and eccentric invalid’. The man in the trunk

at Rome may not have been wealthy—the eccentricity in his mode of travel can hardly be denied. James Bond, of course, would have spirited him out through the catacombs and a fast motor boat on the Tiber.” The two Egyptian diplomats expelled from Italy for attempting to hijack the man arrived in Cairo just before midnight. The men—Mr Abdel Monein el Neklawy and Mr Selim Osman el Sayed—left the airport in a closed car after being met by Foreign Ministry officials. Police in Rome, Naples and Frankfurt tracked the man’s past activities. Naples police were questioning a young local girl said to be engaged to the man,

30-year-old Moroccan-born Joseph Dahan, describing himself as an Israeli citizen. Newspapers suggested Dahan might be a spy or even a double-agent. The United Arab Republic Embassy in Rome issued a statement denying all knowledge of the contents of the large dirty-white “diplomatic package” addressed to the U.A.R. Foreign Ministry in which the man was found. It said the two Embassy First Secretaries, declared personae non gratae, declared the trunk was not the same one sent by the Embassy. The Italian Government today protested against the incident to Mr Ahmed Naguib Hashim, the United Arab

Republic Ambassador in Rome. Expressing his regret, the Ambassador said the actions mentioned were done without his knowledge and outside the possibility of his direct control, Foreign Ministry sources said. In Jerusalem, Israeli police said the man in the trunk was a 28-year-old married man with four children known in Israel as “Mordechai Luk of Petahtikva,” near Tel Aviv. They said he was “not connected with any Israel organisation.” The man’s general physical condition today was described as “fair.” He was still suffering from lack of sleep, shock and probably also the injection he had been given.