Germany frees TWA hijacker / killer of U.S. Navy diver

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Richard.Howe

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TWA Hijacker Released From German Prison
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Associated Press (reprinted at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179254,00.html)
Another version at http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/12/20/germany.militant/index.html

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.
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A shining example of why the death penalty is necessary.

Life in Prison != life in prison.
 
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.
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Of course not -- we know that the German government would never make deals with terrorists.:rolleyes:
 
I don't know why our state dept. didn't get involved in this - and at a minimum issue a strong protest. This is disgusting.
 
Look at it this way- now he's an easy target. I imagine that finding him wouldn't be the hardest task in the world (not the easiest, but not the hardest, either), and I am willing to bet that it would not be difficult to get some SEALs to nip off for a weekend in order to perform an errand.

I'll kick in a box of .45ACP to the effort.
 
Looks like our boy went to Lebanon today...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179288,00.html

Paroled TWA Hijacker Returns to Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Lebanese man serving a life sentence in Germany for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver has returned to Lebanon after being paroled in Germany, security and guerrilla officials said Tuesday.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi arrived in Beirut four days ago on a commercial flight from Germany, a Lebanese security official and a Hezbollah guerrilla group said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

It was not known where Hamadi, who spent 19 years in prison, went after entering Lebanon.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut refused to comment on Hamadi's release or whether the United States will pursue his arrest. The slain diver's brother called the parole "absolutely disturbing."

Hamadi's case came up for a court-mandated review, and he was released after an expert assessment and a hearing, said Doris Moeller-Scheu, spokeswoman for the Frankfurt, Germany, prosecutor's office.

German Justice Ministry spokeswoman Eva Schmierer said Berlin had not received any request from the United States for Hamadi's extradition.

U.S. authorities had requested his extradition so he could stand trial in the United States, but the Germans, who have no death penalty, insisted on prosecuting Hamadi.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said there was no connection between Hamadi's release and the recent freeing of former hostage Susanne Osthoff, a German woman released over the weekend after spending more than three weeks as a captive in Iraq.

TWA flight 847 from Athens, Greece, to Rome was hijacked in June 1985 to Beirut, where the hijackers beat and shot U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md., and dumped his body on the tarmac.

Stethem was the only casualty during the hijacking ordeal, in which 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days. He received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart decorations, and a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer is named in his honor.

Stethem family members said they learned of Hamadi's release Friday from federal investigators who had worked on the case. Stethem's brother, Kenneth, blamed the U.S. government for not doing enough to keep Hamadi imprisoned.

"Rob gave his life. He gave his full measure and I haven't seen anybody give as much to securing his killer as he did in life defending his country," Kenneth Stethem said.

The family now hopes the Bush administration will pressure Lebanon to extradite Hamadi so he can be tried in a U.S. court.

"We'll be after him," Stethem's mother, Patricia, said of Hamadi. "We won't let it rest."

Hamadi was arrested at the Frankfurt airport on Jan. 13, 1987, when customs officials discovered liquid explosives in his luggage.
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I know what I want this guy to get for Christmas.
 
Do you think he'll get involved with modern day terrorism? Germany just threw another log into the fire. :cuss: Hopefully, we have a current photo on file.
 
found it... just to impatient for someone else to do my job.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/21/ap/world/mainD8EK9U00B.shtml

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

McCormack said the U.S. was disappointed with Germany's decision to release Hamadi before he served his full sentence. He said the United States sought jurisdiction over Hamadi after he was arrested and over the years has repeatedly sought to have him tried in the United States.

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.

German Justice Ministry spokeswoman Eva Schmierer said the matter was handled by the state prosecutor in Frankfurt. "The Justice Ministry does not have an extradition request" from the United States, she said.

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.
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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 [/b]didn't know his destination.[/b]
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The Germans must have a very different definition of what "parole" means than we do. How is it that a guy who is on parole is allowed to simply walk out of their country?
 
Update

Navy diver's killer held in Beirut
By Nicholas Kralev and Gary Emerling
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 21, 2005

The Lebanese killer of a U.S. Navy diver was in custody in Beirut yesterday (emphasis added), according to U.S. officials who decried his release from a German prison last week and pledged to bring him to the United States for trial.

Full article here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20051221-120025-9152r.htm
 
No extradition treaty - no problem. Hire someone to kill him.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1C9347E6-A18C-4C46-BC95-167421223C8A.htm

Beirut assails US demand for hijacker

Lebanon has criticised US demands that it hand over a hijacker released by Germany after nearly 19 years in jail for murdering an American.

"Originally they (the US government) could have requested that Germany hand him over. Why are they asking us?" Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Wednesday.

"He served his sentence in Germany and there are measures that will be completed in Lebanon ... . Why are they asking us now?"

Siniora also said Lebanon's judicial authorities were looking at the legal status of Mohammad Ali Hammadi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court for his role in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner and the murder of US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem in Beirut.

Hammadi was freed quietly last week and immediately returned to Lebanon despite objections from Washington, which has vowed to bring him from Lebanon to face a US judge.

Parole legislation

Siniora said Hammadi had already served a term close to what he would have faced if he had been convicted in Lebanon. He also said the judiciary was exploring whether his crime was covered by a general amnesty after Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

A US official said on Tuesday Hammadi was in temporary custody in Lebanon but Lebanese judicial sources said on Wednesday they were not aware he was being held.

Hammadi was arrested in Frankfurt in 1987 and convicted in 1989 of murder, air piracy and possession of explosives.

Germany, which does not have the death penalty, rejected an early US request for his extradition on the grounds that he could have faced capital punishment in America.

US adamant

Under German law, he became eligible for release after serving 15 years. He had spent more than 18 years behind bars, but Washington complained he did not stay there for what it said was a typical "life" sentence in Germany of 25 years.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday Washington would "make every effort to see that he (Hammadi) stands trial in the United States for what he did".

Bringing Hammadi from Lebanon is complicated because there is no US-Lebanese extradition treaty, McCormack said.

Berlin, whose new government has had an awkward start to ties with the Bush administration over counter-terrorism tactics, said there was no link between Hammadi's release last week and that of a German hostage in Iraq just days later.

At his trial, Hammadi had confessed to helping stage the 17-day hijacking to help win the release of 700 Lebanese detainees held by Israel, but he denied any role in killing Stethem.

But according to witnesses, Hammadi and an accomplice took the 23-year-old to the cockpit and beat him. Then they shot him and threw his body out of the Boeing 727 plane.
 
But according to witnesses, Hammadi and an accomplice took the 23-year-old to the cockpit and beat him. Then they shot him and threw his body out of the Boeing 727 plane.
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But Lebanese authorities just can't understand why we would like to have him turned over to us? Hmmmm -- I wonder why.:rolleyes:
 
Ever wonder what justice looks like?
800px-Mk11-Center.jpg
 
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