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Europe

Italy: Achille Lauro hijacker dies in jail

2009-06-23

[ADN Kronos] Khalid Hussein one of the men convicted of hijacking the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, was found dead in an Italian jail early on Monday, possibly of a heart attack Italian media reports say. Not liver failure? How novel. Nah. Couldn't be cirrhosis. Never. That happens overnight. Ev'rybody in B'desh knows that ... Khalid Hussein Abdul-Rahim, 73, had been sentenced to life in jail by a court in the northern Italian city of Genoa in 1987. He was arrested in Greece in 1991 for arms trafficking and extradited five years later to Italy where he was held at various jails. He was one of many Palestinian militants involved in the hijacking of the ship (photo) on 7 October 1985, taking hostage 450 people in exchange for the release of 82 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. During the siege they shot and killed a wheelchair bound Jewish-American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, before throwing his body overboard. Others convicted in Italy for the hijacking include Youssef Magied al-Molqi, who was sentenced to 30 years for shooting Klinghoffer, and 44-year-old Abdelatif Ibrahim Fatayer who was freed last July. Hussein, however, was not directly involved in the hijacking, but had maintained contact with the Palestinian militants aboard the ship and was in charge of the logistics of the operation. The militants belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front, a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, considered the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people at the time. Whereas now half the Palestinians consider the Palestinian Authority to be their legitimate representative. The PA is staffed and headed by members of the PLO, which I believe once again calls itself Fatah. Not news to Rantburg readers, I know.

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Europe

Italy frees hijacker of Achille Lauro cruise ship

2008-07-07

ROME - Italian authorities have ordered a Palestinian man expelled after he served his sentence for taking part in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, which resulted in the murder of an American citizen. The 43-year-old Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif was freed Monday from a temporary holding center for illegal immigrants in Rome, his lawyer said. Lawyer Francesco Romeo said authorities have ordered Abdelatif to leave Italy within 15 days. Romeo said a request for political asylum had been turned down, but he plans to appeal the expulsion order because his client "has nowhere to go." Well, since Gaza's really not a country, how about you send him there? Sounds like a perfect fit. Abdelatif was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon but is not a citizen of that country and Beirut will not let him back in, Romeo said. Ummmmmmmmm...no thanks. Abdelatif was given a 25-year sentence for being a member of the four-man team that took over the Italian cruise ship off the Egyptian coast. During the hijacking an elderly American in a wheelchair from New York, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and pushed overboard. So...how about you shoot him and dump him in the Mediterranean. Tell him he can stay wherever he can swim to. Romeo said his client's sentence was reduced for good behavior. Before ending up in the holding center in April, he spent 20 years in prison and three on parole working for a Catholic charity in the central Italian city of Perugia, the lawyer told The Associated Press. Ahhhh, shilling for the Infidel. That'll go over big wherever he ends up. Others convicted in Italy for the hijacking include Youssef Magied al-Molqi, who was sentenced to 30 years for shooting Klinghoffer, and Khaled Husain Abdullrahim, who was given life in prison. The hijacking was organized by the militant Palestinian Liberation Front in part to demand the freedom of Samir Kantar, the convicted gunman now at the center of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah. Well doesn't that make you feel just great...

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