Hijacker ‘unrepentant’

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 9

Hijacker ‘unrepentant’

NZPA Colombo The Sri Lanka hijacker. Sepala Ekanayaka. remains unrepentant in his prison cell, according to his estranged Italian wife. Anna Aldrovandi. Ekanayaka. who hijacked an Alitalia jumbo jet between New Delhi and Bangkok two weeks ago. released the 261 people aboard after he received his SUS3OO.OOO (SNZ4OS.OO(i) ransom and assurances of safe conduct out of Thailand to Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital. But he was arrested two days later for retention of stolen property. and remanded. His wife, who saw him several times in his prison cell, said before returning to Italy that her husband stillbelieved that he had done the right thing. "There is no argument that could convince him of the contrary. He is not repentant at all." she said. Asked why. after Ekanayaka had insisted during the-hijack on being reunited with his wife and child, she went to Bangkok with their son. Mrs Aldrovandi said that she had felt a moral responsibility for the lives'of so many people. Her personal problems with her husband also had made her go to Bangkok. “I felt it was necessary to have a final explanation, even if it resulted • in a dramatic confrontation, due to the tragic circumstances between him and me." she said. Asked whether she persuaded her husband to re-

lease, the hostages she replied she had not. He laid-down very clear conditions in the course of negotiations, and my going there with the child was one of them. The fulfilment of those conditions made him release the hostages.” She was also adamant that she had not agreed to stay with her husband. "Our pad was that I would come to Sri Lanka for a short period in order to enable him to see the child here. There was never any question about the possibility of my permanently going back to live with him in Sri Lanka or Italy." Although doubts have been cast on Ekanayaka's assertion that he was armed with explosives during the hijacking. Mrs Aldrovandi said she believed him. although she had no evidence for this. She described the week after the hijacking as a nightmare, adding -psychologically it was the heaviest in my' life. From time to time 1’ have felt like a hostage." She said that the police in Sri Lanka had done what they had to do. and praised them for their "extremely kind and correct" behaviour to her. However, the hijacking had made her loath ever to return to Sri Lanka, although she would return if the authorities requested it. Asked what her plans for the future were. Mrs Aldrovandi said she would continue to lead her life as in the last few years, taking care of her child and doing her job which provided the

only financial support. She is a schoolteacher Mrs Aldrovandi said that her concern was to make her four-year-old son. Free., forget -'this terrible sequence of shocks he had recently." In February Ekanayaka took . his son with him when he left Italy, but Mrs Aldrovandi went to Sri Lanka and got him back. She said that Ekanayaka had been "definitely" involved with a narcotics ring while in Italy, which was one of the main reasons for the failure of their marriage, although she could" not say what had happened after he left Italy. Ekanayaka had has his Italian residence permit cancelled after he was arrested in Yugoslavia on narcotics charges.