Germany

[SugarBee]

Germany paroles terrorist serving life for hijacking

December 20, 2005

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

BERLIN-- Mohammed Ali Hamadi has been paroled from prison after serving 19 years of a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and for killing a U.S. Navy diver, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

 

Hamadi has been released from prison and has left Germany, said Doris Moeller-Scheu, a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office. She said she didn't know his destination.

 

She said Hamadi's case came up for a regular legally mandated review by a parole court and he was released after an expert assessment and a hearing.

 

The flight was hijacked to Beirut, where U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md., was shot and his body dumped on the tarmac.

 

German officials said the case was a matter for state authorities. Justice Ministry spokeswoman Eva Schmierer said Germany did not have any request from the United States for Hamadi's extradition.

 

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Martin Jaeger, said there was no connection between his release and that of Susanne Osthoff, a German woman released at the weekend after spending more than three weeks as a hostage in Iraq.

[Lonan3]

The final part does seem to bear an echo of the American 'arms for hostages' affair in the 1980s - except that that one only led to the taking of more hostages.

Basically, if a deal has been done, it's doomed to failure because it only encourages a repeat performance by the terrorists.

[Amadeus]

The final part does seem to bear an echo of the American 'arms for hostages' affair in the 1980s - except that that one only led to the taking of more hostages.

Basically, if a deal has been done, it's doomed to failure because it only encourages a repeat performance by the terrorists.

I doubt that his release was directly connected to the German hostage in Iraq.

 

The papers are full with stories about her, and the background of her abduction and eventual release seems to be pretty complex, involving the driver of her cab (who is said to have driven her straight into her kidnappers arms), a sheik where she used to stay and who employed the mentioned driver (and who coincidentally offered to "negotiate" for her release afterwards), plenty of secret service guys from all camps, and a German/Iraqi "Friendship Club" with plenty of influental members from all sites (remember the news that some of the highest religious cleriks in Iraq called for her release a couple of weeks ago? Them kinda guys..)

 

It seems, the guys from this "Club" were supported by Germany for a long time in one way or another, starting way back when Saddam was still at it, and where called upon to pull some strings and find out who had done what and where she was - reports about a ransom having been paid were neither confirmed nor denied, so it seems that this one was more a money-based exercise, rather than a political operation to get a prisoner released.. Of course, you can never be sure...

[Gladys]

Don't know very much about this, but I really don't understand the relevance of this man's release after 19 years' imprisonment to the current situation. Yes, he is obviously Moslem and killed an American, but is he a known supporter of Al Qua'eda, likely to rush back into the fold on release? I just don't know, because the world has changed greatly since his crime. Does the benefit of being able to see the changes really affect the original crime he committed?

 

If that is the case, then certain former provos ought to be rounded up and put back into Shanklin.