Hijackers’ fate decided

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33424, 4 January 1974, Page 10

Hijackers’ fate decided

(N.Z.P.A.-Keuter—Copyright) BEIRUT, January 3. Kuwait will hand over the Rome Airport hijackers to the Palestine Liberation Organisation very soon, it was confirmed by the Kuwaiti Minister of Defence (Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Salem Al Sagah) in an interview published in Beirut today.

Sheikh Saad told the Leb-| anese newspaper “An Nahar” that his Government still did not know who the five hi ) jackers were, or what organi-: sation had ordered the De-) cember 17 hijacking, in which) 31 persons were killed. Kuwait refused to extradite ; the men to Italy. Sheikh Saad said that his Government had received as-) surances that the P.L.O. [ would “uncover all aspects) of the affair, and that the| punishment would be severe.) “We told the P.L.O. inves-j tigating committee that wel were against anarchy . . ~”! he said. The P.L.O. representative) in Kuwait reported on December 31 that the investi-l gating committee had learned what organisation had planned the hijacking, but that the P.L.O. had yet to decide) whether to disclose the find-) ings. Meanwhile, the head of Al Saiqa, one of the factions off the P.L.0., denied that the)

i P.L.O. steering committee had given the investigators a mandate. Mr Zuheir Mohsen, leader of the Syrian-influenced Al Saiqa, said in an interview ) today in the Lebanese paper )“A1 Chark” that a P.L.O. in- , vestigation was unjustified, ) since all branches of the I P.L.O. had already denied responsibility for the hijacking. ! Al Saiqa contends that the hijackers should not be : handed over to the P.L.O.