Senators Urge Shultz to Offer $500,000 for Arrest of Abbas

Six senators urged Secretary of State George P. Shultz today to offer a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Abul Abbas, the Palestinian guerrilla leader who the United States says planned the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship.

The senators, members of the Senate Anti-Terrorism Caucus, told Shultz in a letter that he should offer the bounty under the 1984 law known as the Act to Combat International Terrorism.

“The reward . . . will increase the likelihood of Mr. Abbas being brought to justice,” the senators wrote. “We hope you will agree with us that all possible methods of achieving this goal must be used.”

The letter was released at a news conference on Capitol Hill before it was sent to the State Department. It was signed by Sens. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.), Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) and Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.).

“Prosecution of Mr. Abbas in the United States should be a condition of payment of the reward,” D’Amato, chairman of the caucus, told reporters. “I’m also calling on the attorney general to add a charge of murder to the existing warrant.”

Last Friday, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia issued a warrant for the arrest of Abbas on charges of hostage-taking, piracy and conspiracy to commit both crimes.

Abbas, who has traveled with an Iraqi diplomatic passport, is reportedly in South Yemen, a communist nation with which the United States has no extradition treaty. Authorities in Italy and Yugoslavia had allowed him to leave those countries despite U.S. extradition requests.

Abbas has said he had nothing to do with last week’s hijacking of the Italian ocean liner but merely mediated with the hijackers to leave the ship.