Hijack suspect on 16 charges
NZPA-Reuter Valletta Omar Muhammad Ali Rezaq, identified as the sole surviving hijacker of the Egypt Air Boeing 737 taken over on November 24, pleaded not guilty yesterday to 16 charges related to the seizure. . Rezaq denied charges ranging from murder to being in illegal possession of arms when he appeared in a Valletta magistrates court. He was accused of causing the death of two women and with severely injuring eight other people.
The Maltese Government had said that Rezaq is a Palestinian born in Lebanon in 1963.
The charges concern events during the flight to Malta after the.plane had been hijacked out of Athens, and when the plane was on the ground at Malta’s Luqa Airport when it was. attacked by Egyptian commandos.
Sixty * people died in the hijacking and rescue action. Rezaq was also accused of seizing the aircraft,, causing an explosion on board, and carrying arms and explosives. Of the other two hijackers in the seizure, one was killed in a shootout with an Egyptian security guard during the flight to Malta and the other died when the commandos stormed the plane. Rezaq was wounded during the commando attack and has been kept in hospital since. Malta has said that he will would be brought to trial on the island and has rejected an Egyptian request for his extradition.
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Press, 14 December 1985, Page 11
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226Hijack suspect on 16 charges Press, 14 December 1985, Page 11
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