Germans parole hijacker of TWA jetliner in 1985

BEIRUT, Lebanon – A hijacker in a terrorist drama that riveted America – the 1985 seizure of a TWA jet in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed – has returned home to Lebanon, paroled by Germany after serving 19 years of a life sentence.

The United States said Tuesday it wants Lebanon to turn over Mohammed Ali Hamadi for trial in the killing of the diver, Robert Dean Stethem.

“We have demonstrated over the years that when we believe an individual is responsible for the murder of innocent American civilians, that we will track them down and that we will bring them to justice in the United States,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

He said the United States is talking with the Lebanese government about Hamadi, but the U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon.

Hamadi was in temporary Lebanese custody, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations with the Lebanese are confidential. A senior Lebanese judicial official contacted by the Associated Press declined to comment.

Trans World Airlines Flight 847, with 145 passengers and nine crew members, was flying from Athens to Rome on June 14, 1985, when it was hijacked by Shiite Muslim militants demanding the release of hundreds of Lebanese from Israeli jails.

During a 17-day ordeal, the plane was forced to crisscross the Mediterranean from Lebanon to Algeria, landing in Beirut three times before it was finally allowed to remain there.

The ordeal produced one of the most enduring images of terrorism: a picture of TWA pilot John Testrake leaning out of the cockpit window as a hijacker clamped a hand over his mouth and waved a pistol.

On the second day of the seizure, the hijackers beat and shot to death Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md., and dumped his body onto the runway in Beirut.

Witnesses later identified Hamadi as having beaten the tied-up Stethem. According to testimony at Hamadi’s trial, when Stethem complained about his bonds, Hamadi responded: “Let the pig suffer.”

The plane’s flight engineer testified at the 1989 trial that Hamadi bragged he had killed Stethem.

On Tuesday, the prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, Germany, announced Hamadi’s release, saying he had been freed and left the country several days earlier after his case came up for a regular legally mandated review by a parole court.

Hamadi arrived Saturday in his homeland, Lebanon, on a commercial flight from Germany, a Lebanese security official said. An official with the Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group confirmed his return. Neither would give details and both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

It was not known where Hamadi went after arriving in Lebanon and efforts to locate him Tuesday were unsuccessful.

The United States had sought Hamadi’s extradition when he was caught in January 1987 as he went through customs at Frankfurt Airport with liquid explosives in his luggage. The Germans, who have no death penalty, insisted on prosecuting him. A German court convicted him of both the hijacking and of Stethem’s death.

McCormack said the U.S. was disappointed with Germany’s decision to release Hamadi before he served his full sentence. He said the United States sought jurisdiction over Hamadi after he was arrested and over the years has repeatedly sought to have him tried in the United States.

Hamadi was indicted in absentia in 1985 in federal court in Washington. He was charged with air piracy resulting in murder, among other crimes.