4 Palestinians Charged With Piracy, Murder

Four Palestinians, intercepted in flight by U.S. warplanes as they fled Egypt, were charged by Italy on Friday with hijacking an Italian cruise ship and murdering an American hostage.

The charges were filed after President Reagan and Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi engaged in a heated telephone conversation in which both governments demanded the right to prosecute the hijackers first. Reagan agreed to let Italy act first.

The four hijackers were under arrest and being questioned at the Sigonella military base near Catania, Sicily. Court officials in Genoa, Italy, said the four were charged with hijacking, premeditated murder, kidnaping and possession of arms and explosives.

Four U.S. Navy F-14 fighter jets intercepted the Egyptair passenger liner in flight with the four Palestinian hijackers aboard and forced it to land in Sicily when the Tunisian and Greek governments refused landing permission.

Reagan, stymied on how to retaliate against previous terrorist bombings and kidnapings of Americans in the Middle East, said he ordered the mission because, “Here was a clear case in which we could lay our hands on the terrorists.”

The Egyptair Boeing 737 was released by authorities at the U.S. base after a 22-hour forced stay in Sicily and was believed to be flying to Rome’s Ciampino military airport. It was unclear whether officials released or held for questioning two Palestine Liberation Organization officials who were aboard with the hijackers when the plane was intercepted.

Craxi had said earlier that the two leaders, Mohammed (Abu) Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, a PLO splinter group to which the hijackers belonged, and Abu Jihad, reportedly a close military aide to PLO leader Yasser Arafat, had been “invited to provide useful testimony” by Sicilian legal officials.

The Boeing 737, with 19 other passengers and crew aboard, was held at the Sigonella base all day because officials needed to check identities and make sure they had all four hijackers in custody, he said.

There had been suspicion that one of 19 other Arabs aboard had been substituted for one of the hijackers, and authorities spent hours checking identities.

“Even though it took place in exceptional circumstances, in the final analysis those responsible have been assured to justice,” Craxi told a news conference. “I consider this to be undoubtedly a success, even though helped by the use of unorthodox attitudes.”

The U.S. seizure of the Egyptian airliner was the first military operation of its kind against terrorists in peacetime. Reagan said the move should send a message to terrorists that “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger hailed the seizure of the hijackers--members of a PLO splinter group--as a success in line with the 1983 U.S.-led invasion of Grenada and said it was conducted “without any hostile activity on our part.”

Egypt, one of America’s strongest allies in the Middle East, condemned the seizure with “utmost sorrow” and said it would rather have seen the hijackers turned over to Arafat to face justice at the hands of their own people.

Seventeen of the former American hostages from the cruise liner Achille Lauro left Cairo by plane for the United States late Friday. They were flown from Cairo airport on a special U.S. Starlifter military transport plane. They joined 11 others on board who left the Achille Lauro Thursday night.

The seizure of the Egyptian plane followed a day of uncertainty over the whereabouts of the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he had turned over the hijackers to the PLO as part of a deal to free the hostages aboard the ship, but the PLO denied that they had custody.

The exact whereabouts of the hijackers was not known until confirmation that their Egyptian plane had been forced to land by U.S. warplanes, ending the hostage drama that began last Monday when the Achille Lauro was hijacked in the Mediterranean.

The four Palestinians held 511 people hostage for two days and killed wheelchair-bound American Leon Klinghoffer, before surrendering Wednesday to Egyptian authorities. Klinghoffer, 69, who was Jewish, was shot and tossed overboard. The hijackers demanded the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

In Cairo, Egyptian authorities Friday denied the Achille Lauro permission to leave Port Said minutes before it was to steam to Israel to pick up about 550 passengers waiting to reboard the ship at Ashdod. No explanation was given.

Early Friday, Reagan and Craxi held a three-hour transatlantic telephone discussion over which nation would take custody of the Palestinians.