Beirut Radio Names the Hijackers, Says Lebanon Will Try to Prosecute

State-owned Beirut radio Friday named the hijackers of TWA Flight 847 and said that Lebanese officials would attempt to prosecute the men who killed a U.S. Navy diver and held 39 American passengers hostage for 16 days.

The radio, which announced the names of the three men, carried the item in its 11 a.m. news broadcast but dropped them from later programs without explanation. Government sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this was done on orders “from above,” the Associated Press reported.

In its announcement, the radio said the names were “referred to the competent judicial authorities” in the Mt. Lebanon section of Beirut, which includes the airport where the red-and-white TWA Boeing 727 still sits on the tarmac.

Prosecution Problems

The broadcast said nothing about their being in custody or whether arrest warrants for them had been issued for them. Nor did it link the three men with any organization. However, they are widely believed to be from Hezbollah (the Party of God), a fundamentalist Shia Muslim group that claimed responsibility for several acts of terrorism before Flight 847 was hijacked June 14.

Beirut radio gave no attribution for its report, but political sources said it came from judicial officials in Christian East Beirut.

The sources said, however, that any manhunt for the three Shias are bound to fail unless the militia chiefs of West Beirut surrendered them to East Beirut authorities.

Identities Given

The three hijackers were identified as Ali Atweh, Ali Younis and Ahmed Gharibeh, but the broadcast said there was no further information about them or about an unspecified number of “others” mentioned as accomplices.

Atweh was arrested at Athens airport while attempting to board the Rome-bound jetliner, which was commandeered soon after leaving the Greek capital. He was freed later by Greek authorities and flown to join his two comrades in Algiers, where the plane landed twice before settling in Beirut on June 17 for the third and last time.

Political analysts expressed some doubt that the hijackers could be brought to trial because of the disarray of Lebanon’s judicial system, overseen by Justice Minister Nabih Berri, who as leader of the Shia Muslim militia Amal commands the country’s biggest private army. Berri assumed control of the hostages from the initial hijackers.

A senior official of Berri’s militia said last week that the group had no objection to the two hijackers initially aboard the plane being brought to justice. But he said then that they had not been identified and could not be found.

Navy Diver Murdered

The hijackers murdered Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem of Waldorf, Md., during the early days of the crisis. The 39 American male hostages were released June 30 after Syria--which supports Berri and other Lebanese Muslim leaders--intervened to free them.

In Washington, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the United States is watching “with close interest” what the Lebanese government does to prosecute the gunmen.

“We applaud whatever progress the Lebanese authorities could make on this pressing matter. We have no basis for argument concerning the names. We’ve heard these names before,” he said.

“As for the U.S. position on judicial action, we’ve asked that the judicial process be carried out, and we’ve reminded the Lebanese government of their international obligations under The Hague and Montreal conventions to either prosecute or extradite the terrorists,” he said.

Speakes said he does not believe that the United States has an extradition treaty with Lebanon. “We’re exploring avenues for legal action,” he said.

After killing Stethem June 15, the hijackers were joined by 10 to 12 compatriots at Beirut International Airport. Beirut radio said efforts were being made to identify the accomplices.

“Investigations are under way to determine the identity of the other sky pirates as a prelude to a search for their whereabouts and the taking of the relevant judicial decision to punish them,” the radio said.