Cruise
ship hijacker dies in Iraq
Source:
BBC News March 10, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3548461.stm
Palestinian
militant Abu Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking,
has died in US custody, US officials have confirmed.
Abbas,
leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front, apparently died of natural causes,
officials said.
He
was convicted in absentia by an Italian court for the attack, in which
wheelchair-bound American tourist Leon Klinghoffer was killed.
Abbas
was captured in Baghdad last year by US special forces.
Klinghoffer
killing
Pentagon
officials said that Abbas, who was in his mid-50s, had died on Monday, most
likely of a heart attack.
They
said an autopsy would be performed to determine the cause of death.
The
BBC's Nick Childs at the Pentagon says that as the leader of the Palestine
Liberation Front, Abbas could have had information that could have been of
interest to the United States in its so-called global war on terrorism.
Abbas
was one of several PLF members who carried out the 1985 attack on the Achille
Lauro, in an attempt to secure the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners being
held in Israel.
The
ship was seized while sailing between the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Port
Said.
During
the two-day stand-off the gunmen killed Klinghoffer, an elderly US Jew confined
to a wheelchair, and threw his body overboard.
Klinghoffer's
family said on Tuesday that Abbas' death had robbed them of justice for the
killing.
"The
one consolation for us is that Abu Abbas died in captivity, not as a free
man," a statement from the family said, as quoted by French news agency AFP.
Iraq
capture
After
the stand-off, Egypt gave free passage to the hijackers in exchange for the rest
of the hostages - many of them Americans.
But
the plane carrying the hijackers to Tunisia was intercepted by US Navy jets and
forced to land in Italy.
Abbas'
co-conspirators were sentenced to long prison terms, but he himself was freed by
the Italian authorities, who said they had insufficient evidence to detain him.
However,
he was later convicted in absentia of masterminding the hijacking and received
five life sentences.
Abbas
reportedly spent around 17 years in Iraq before his capture there in 2003.
In
1996, he described the killing of Klinghoffer as a mistake.
Story
from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3548461.stm
Published: 2004/03/10 09:58:05 GMT
© BBC MMIV
Follow
this link to read a 2002 interview with Abu Abbas.