Berlin deports Palestinians

Press, 21 November 1979, Page 9

Berlin deports Palestinians

NZPA-Reuter West Berlin Three Palestinians, including one who took part in a guerrilla attack on Athens Airport six years ago, have been deported from West Berlin to Libya. They were flown out to Tripoli via Frankfurt six days after their arrest for trying to enter West Berlin with forged Libyan passports, the police chief, Manfred Kittlaus, said. Thev included Ali Arid, aged 27, who was sentenced

to death in Athens in 1973 it for an attack on an Ameri- : i can airliner in which five )1 people were killed. He was) 1 pardoned in 1974 and deported to Libya. The police feared the three ; Palestinians had gone to t West Berlin to make an J attack to force the authori-’ ties to release seven Arabs ; on trial on charges of plan- . ning to blow up the city’s < biggest fuel depot. i But Mr Kittlaus said there < was no concrete proof and < no weapons were found on I the three men who, informed i

sources said, were members of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They had gone to West Berlin from East Berlin’s Schoenefeld Airport with about 30,000 marks ($15,260) in foreign currency. West German security ' authorities contacted the Austrian and United States i Governments before deport- : ing him in case of extradition ; claims. Austrians and Americans were among the five killed in the Athens Airport attack.

Austria decided against an extradition appeal and the United States had not replied before the pre-announced deportation time, Mr Kittlaus said. Informed sources said an Arab source had given the tip-off which led to the arrest of the three Palestinians. West Berlin stepped up security checks for fears of: reprisals after the disclosure; three weeks ago that Israeli I agents were allowed to question the Palestinians in a West German jail.