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U.S. seeks custody of paroled hijacker

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A hijacker in a terrorist act 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.

The Associated Press cited an unnamed U.S. official who said Hamadi was in temporary Lebanese custody, and a senior Lebanese judicial official 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.

An urgent radio transmission from the unflappable TWA pilot, John Testrake, to the Beirut control tower was broadcast around the world: "We must, I repeat, we must land repeat, at Beirut. . . . Ground, TWA 847, they are threatening to kill the passengers, they are threatening to kill the passengers. We must have fuel, we must get fuel. . . . They are beating the passengers, they are beating the passengers."

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 trial that Hamadi bragged he had killed Stethem.

The United States had sought Hamadi's extradition when he was caught in January 1987 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.

Hamadi was indicted in absentia in 1985 in federal court in Washington. He was charged with air piracy resulting in murder, among other crimes. It is not clear whether he would face the death penalty if tried under that indictment, since the federal death penalty was not reinstated until 1988.

Stethem's brother called the release "absolutely disturbing," and blamed the U.S. government for not doing enough to prevent Hamadi from being set free.

The family hopes the Bush administration will pressure Lebanon to turn Hamadi over. "We'll be after him," said Stethem's mother, Patricia. "We won't let it rest."

Still at large are Hamadi's three accomplices - Hassan Izz-Al-Din, Ali Atwa and Imad Mughniyeh, the former Hezbollah security chief who is also accused in the kidnappings of Americans in Beirut - who each were indicted in the United States and have a $5-million bounty on their heads.

[Last modified December 21, 2005, 00:52:16]