Greek police have arrested a 65-year old Lebanese man, suspected to be one of the hijacker s of TWA flight 847 in 1985. The man was wanted by German authorities for aircraft hijacking and kidnapping, crimes committed in 1985 and 1987.
The man was reportedly touring the Greek islands and was arrested on the island of Mykonos on Saturday after he disembarked from the cruise ship.
He was arrested during the passport control.
After Rhodes and Santorini, Mykonos was the last destination of the cruiser and the former hijacker before returning to Turkey.
According to Greek media, the man was thought to be involved in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight which left one person dead.
TWA Flight 847 was a flight from Cairo to San Diego with en route stops in Athens, Rome, Boston, and Los Angeles.
On the morning of June 14, 1985, Flight 847 was hijacked shortly after take off from Athens. The hijackers demanded the release of 700 Shi’ite Muslims from Israeli custody and took the plane repeatedly to Beirut and Algiers.
The passengers and crew endured a three-day intercontinental ordeal. Some passengers were threatened and some beaten. Passengers with Jewish-sounding names were moved apart from the others.
United States Navy diver Robert Stethem was tortured and murdered, and his body was thrown onto the apron. Dozens of passengers were held hostage over the next two weeks until released by their captors after some of their demands were met.
The Greek government arrested Ali Atwa but released him as part of the deal to release the hostages. In exchange the hijackers released eight Greek citizens, including Greek pop singer Demis Roussos, to be flown by a Greek government business jet from Algiers back to Athens.
Western media considered the hijackers as members of the Hezbollah militant group, but Hezbollah rejected that conclusion.
Who is the hijacker arrested in Mykonos?
Greek authorities have not released the man’s identity to far, but only two clues: his age and the arrest warrant by German authorities.
The four hijackers were allegedly leading” Hezbollah members Hassan Izz-Al-Din (later involved in the Kuwait Airways Flight 422 hijacking in 1988), Mohammed Ali Hammadi, Ali Atwa and Imad Mugniyah..
Mohammed Ali Hammadi was arrested in 1987 in Frankfurt, West Germany, while attempting to smuggle liquid explosives, two years after the TWA Flight 847 attack. In addition to the charges,he was tried and convicted of Stethem’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison. However, he was paroled and released by German officials on December 20, 2005, and returned to Lebanon.
On February 14, 2006 the United States formally asked the Lebanese government to extradite Mohammed Ali Hammadi for Stethem’s murder. On February 24, 2006, he appeared as well on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. He was reportedly killed in a CIA drone strike inside Pakistan in June 2010.
Also on the FBI List are Mugniya and Atwa.
Several news outlets reported the announcement by Hezbollah of the death of Imad Mugniya in a car-bombing attack in Syria in 2008.
Based on wikipedia information, Al-Din must be 56 years old and Atwa 59.
According to a Greek police statement:
“The foreigner’s ID data showed a pending European arrest warrant issued by German authorities on terrorist offenses, in particular the hijacking and kidnapping case in 1985 and 1987. ”
He was taken to prosecutor on the neighboring island of Syros who reportedly ordered his detention and his transfer to Korydallos prison in Athens.
KTG understand that the arrest took place two days ago, on Thursday, Sept 19.
source: Greek media and wikipedia TWA Flight 847
