Hijack group in ‘safe place’

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 1

Hijack group in ‘safe place’

NZPA-Reuter Rome Four Palestinian hijackers flown to Sicily after United States warplanes swooped on an Egyptian plane carrying them over the Mediterranean have been moved away from the Sigonella airbase where they landed, a Government official said yesterday. A spokesman for the Prime Minister, Mr Craxi, said the four hijackers of the Italian Cruise ship Achille Lauro had been moved to a "safe place” from the base where they had landed earlier.

The spokesman was unable to say whether the gunmen were still in Sicily or whether they had been moved to the Italian mainland.

Italian magistrates would probably question the men later, he said.

He could not confirm or deny a report by the Italian news agency, ANSA, that President Reagan had agreed the hijackers should remain on Italian territory only after Rome insisted on its right to try them.

Italian radio commentators said Italy would encounter serious difficulty extraditing the men to a country where they could face the death sentence.

Mr Reagan has said he believes the men, accused of killing a crippled American, Leon Klinghoffer, aged 69, and throwing his body overboard, should be sentenced to death.

Italy abolished capital punishment under the postwar republican constitution introduced in 1946.

The five-day hijacking drama took an unexpected turn yesterday with the confirmation from the United States that American carrier-based warplanes had pounced on the Egyptian airliner, forcing it down.

The move was taken so that the “pirates” would face justice for killing a passenger.

Four Tomcat fighters swooped out of a darkened Mediterranean sky to dash what was to have been the flight to freedom for the Palestinians who hijacked the Italian liner on Monday. The Egypt Air Boeing airliner was forced to land at an air base in Sicily.

The Palestinians were seeking to free guerrillas jailed in Israel and other countries. They surrendered 52 hours later on a promise of safe conduct out of Egypt. The White House spokesman, Larry Speakes, said an outraged Mr Reagan ordered the Tomcats into the sky after consultations with Mr Craxi.

The top secret move was a big embarrassment for Egypt, already stung by severe United States criticism over a deal with the pirates which Cairo officials said was struck before they were aware of Mr Klinghoffer’s killing.

The American Defence Secretary, Mr Caspar Weinberger, told a Washington news conference that the carrier Saratoga was cruising near Albania when she was ordered to intercept the pirates.