Autopsy Shows Gunshots Killed Klinghoffer

An Italian anti-terrorism official said Thursday an autopsy showed that Leon Klinghoffer, an American passenger on the hijacked cruise ship Achille Lauro, was killed by gunshots.

The official, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said no bullets were found in Klinghoffer’s body during the autopsy at the Institute of Legal Medicine.

No statement was issued after the seven-hour examination.

Prosecutor Dolcino Favi, a magistrate from Syracuse, Sicily, investigating Klinghoffer’s death, said the autopsy has provided “a great contribution to the investigation and many confirmations of hypotheses that we have made.”

Asked to elaborate, Favi said only: “Let’s say the investigation is going very well. It is full of details.”

Four men who claim to be members of a Palestine Liberation Organization faction, the Palestine Liberation Front, have already been charged with hijacking the ship Oct. 7 off Alexandria, Egypt, and with murdering Klinghoffer.

Earlier Thursday, Favi told a news conference in Genoa “there is no doubt” that the ship’s hijackers had killed Klinghoffer, who was 69 years old and confined to a wheelchair after suffering two strokes.

“We have reconstructed the killing of the American in all the details,” Favi said, adding that there were about 10 witnesses to Klinghoffer’s murder. Previous reports said only five people might have seen the crime--a British stewardess and four Italian crew members.

ANSA, the Italian news agency, quoted unidentified sources at the Rome medical institute as saying that Klinghoffer had been shot at least twice, once in the head and once in the chest.

Institute officials said a U.S. pathologist from a U.S. military base in West Germany observed the autopsy, which was performed by four Italian doctors. Police in Rome said FBI agents were also present.

Klinghoffer’s body washed ashore in Syria earlier this week, several days after he was killed and his body dumped in the ocean off Tartus, Syria. It was flown to Rome on Wednesday.

Angelo Signoracci, a medical technician at the institute, said Klinghoffer’s face was badly disfigured and swollen. His right arm, left leg and the tips of several fingers were missing, he said.