Tue 20 Dec 2005 Paroled hijacker returns to Lebanon A Lebanese man who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and the killing of a US Navy diver has returned to Lebanon after German authorities paroled him, a Lebanese security official and the Hezbollah guerrilla group has said.
Mohammed Ali Hamadi was released and returned to Beirut a few days ago, said a Hezbollah official in Beirut. A Lebanese security official also confirmed Hamadi had arrived four days ago aboard a commercial flight from Germany, but would not elaborate. It was not immediately known where Hamadi went after his entry to Lebanon. A German law enforcement official said Hamadi was released from prison and left Germany. Hamadi was arrested at the Frankfurt airport on January 13, 1987 for involvement in the hijacking, after customs officials discovered liquid explosives in his luggage. TWA flight 847 from Athens to Rome was hijacked to Beirut, where the hijackers shot Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Maryland, and dumped his body on the tarmac. At the time, the US authorities requested Hamadi's extradition so he could stand trial in the United States, but the Germans, who have no death penalty, insisted on prosecuting Hamadi. German Justice Ministry spokeswoman Eva Schmierer said Germany had not received any request from the United States for Hamadi's extradition. A spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office, Doris Moeller-Scheu, said Hamadi's case came up for regular review by a parole court and he was released after an expert assessment and a hearing. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Martin Jaeger, said there was no connection between his release and that of Susanne Osthoff, a German woman who was released on the weekend after spending more than three weeks as a hostage in Iraq. Stethem, 23, was beaten and shot on June 15, 1985, while the plane was in Beirut. He was the only casualty during the hijacking ordeal, in which 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days. He received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart decorations, and a US Navy guided missile destroyer is named in his honour. This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2438412005 Last updated: 20-Dec-05 17:26 GMT ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> AIDS in India: A "lurking bomb." Click and help stop AIDS now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/X6CDDD/lzNLAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
