Hijacker given death sentence

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 9

Hijacker given death sentence

NZPA Jakarta A member of a radical Muslim movement charged with involvement in the hijacking of an Indonesian airliner to Bangkok in March 1980 was sentenced to death by the Jakarta District Court. Ashar Bin Mochamad Syafar was found guilty of subversion in trying to topple the Government and replace it with a Muslim State. Ashar was arrested in April 1980 on charges of taking part in the attack on a police station in West Java in which three policemen were killed, and involvement in the hijacking.of an Indonesian domestic airliner to Bangkok in March, 1980, said Judge Pitoyo. Ashar was also charged with illegal possession of a pistol, lending his house to members of the radical, movement headed by Imran Bin Mohammad, dealing in firearms and the manufacture of explosives. Imran, aged 32, was sentenced to death by the court last March. He was also arrested in Aprill9Bo. Mr Pitoyo said that the verdict was in accordance with the country's anti-sub-versive law promulgated in 1963.

Ashar has seven days to appeal. All five hijackers who were alleged followers of Imran were killed when Indonesian special troops stormed the hijacked aircraft at Dong Muang airport in Bangkok and freed 58 passengers aboard the airliner. • A West Java District Court in the city of Bandung last May sentenced another member of the radical movement, Salman Hafidz, aged 29, to death.

A court spokesman said that none of the men ■ sentenced to death have so far been executed.