Iranian hijackers will face air piracy charge

Press, 9 July 1983, Page 1

Iranian hijackers will face air piracy charge

NZPA-Reuter Paris Six armed Iranians who hijacked an Iran Air Boeing 747 jumbo jet with 350 people aboard before finally surrendering in Paris, will be charged with air piracy. The one-day hijack ended yesterday when the six, who said they were opposed to the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, gave themselves up to police at Orly Airport and released , the last of their 350 hostages. The plane was seized on Thursday on an Iranian domestic flight and landed in Kuwait before heading for Paris. Nearly half the passengers were freed in Kuwait.

The rest of the hostages, including the crew, were released after the Parisbased Iranian rebel leader, Massoud Rajavi, negotiated with the hijackers by radio from Orly’s control tower. At first they claimed to be members of his Leftwing People’s Mujahedeen-e-khalq, but later said they

were only sympathisers. A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Paris criticised the French Government for bringing Mr Rajavi in as a mediator. The spokesman said Iran was happy that “blood was not shed,” but called Mr Rajavi a “terrorist” without the “moral stature to act as a mediator.” He added that Iranian diplomats were prevented from meeting the hostages after their release.

It was clear the hijackers wanted to talk only to Mr Rajavi, who spent years in prison under the late Shah, went underground in Iran soon after Ayatollah Khomeiny’s grip on the revolution tightened and fled to France after declaring guerrilla war. A statement from the office of the Prime Minister, Mr Pierre Mauroy, said the hijackers would be charged in France with air piracy. Government sources said Paris was unlikely to meet Iranian demands for

their extradition. Relations between the two countries are already strained by the presence of Mr Rajavi’s Left-wing Mujahedeen and other Iranian opposition groups in France and by the Mitterrand Government’s firm support for Iraq in the Gulf war. Airport sources said that at least two of the passengers were believed to have asked for political asylum in France, but there was no immediate official confirmation.

“It’s a happy ending,” said Mr Rajavi after the hijackers surrendered. “It could have gone very badly. They wanted to stage a protest against Khomeiny.” After landing in Paris, the hijackers, said by the police to be young men, threatened to blow up the plane. French television quoted the police as saying that five pistols but no explosives were found in the passenger compartment. Picture L page 10