The leader of a group of Palestinian terrorists who took over a Pan Am jet and killed 22 people was sentenced to life in prison Thursday, capping an emotional two-day hearing in which survivors recounted their trauma from the 1986 hijacking attempt. Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus 25 years on 95 charges of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to attempt murder as part of a plea agreement approved Thursday in U.S. District Court. .... Earlier in the hearing, Safarini read a five-minute apology to more than 50 survivors and victims’ relatives from five countries who attended the hearing. Safarini, a Jordanian, told the court he was "brainwashed" into doing horrible actions, believing it would promote the Palestinian cause. ....
| Brainwashed? How could they tell? |
[Judge Emmet] Sullivan ruled in April 2003 that there was no federal capital punishment available for air piracy on Sept. 5, 1986, when Safarini and three others took over the Boeing 747 while parked at Karachi Airport. .... During the two-day hearing, 27 survivors and relatives testified to the horror they felt when Safarini and three others boarded the plane and demanded that 1,500 prisoners in Cyprus and Israel be released. ... The hijackers, all members of the Abu Nidal Palestinian terror organization, began shooting after 15 hours and throwing hand grenades at the passengers. In all, 22 people were killed, including two Americans, and more than 100 wounded. .... In a 1988 trial in Pakistan, the four, and a fifth, who plotted the takeover, admitted the hijacking but maintained Pakistani commandos were responsible for the passengers’ deaths. The five were convicted in that trial and given death sentences that were commuted to life imprisonment.
| Their victims are still dead, I hear. |
Four of them remain in prison, but Safarini was released Sept. 27, 2001, after his sentence was reduced by a series of amnesties. U.S. law enforcement agents caught him the next day as he traveled to Jordan to join relatives. ... |