Managua frees U.S. pilot

Press, 1 February 1988, Page 8

Managua frees U.S. pilot

NZPA-Reuter

Managua

Nicaragua’s Left-wing Sandinista Government yesterday freed a United States civilian pilot, James Jordan Denby, who had been detained for seven weeks. A source at the Interior Ministry confirmed that charges against him had been dropped.

The release marked the

second time the Government freed an American whose plane was shot down over its territory. In October, 1986, the Sandinistas captured Eugene Hasenfus, who was shot down in a plane carrying supplies to the United States-backed contra rebels. Convicted and sentenced to 30 years for anti-Government activities, he was pardoned and

returned to the United States shortly before Christmas, 1986. Denby was freed at the public relations office of the General Directorate for State Security, near El Chipote prison, where he had been held.

On December 6, Denby was taken into custody after his single-engine Cessna plane was forced down by automatic rifle

fire. He landed on an isolated, palm-lined strip of Caribbean beach near the border with Costa Rica, where he has a farm.

He was transferred to a state security prison in the capital and charged with anti-Government activities, including violation of public order and illicit association, a reference to the contra rebels.