Court in Italy Issues Warrant for Abul Abbas : Magistrate Charges PLO Official With Achille Lauro Crimes

Italian judicial authorities have issued an arrest warrant for PLO official Abul Abbas in connection with the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, Italian news agencies reported Saturday.

The agency AGI said a warrant issued by a magistrate in Syracuse charged Abbas with murder, kidnaping, hijacking and transportation and possession of arms and explosives.

The Syracuse investigation’s focus on Abbas was revealed Saturday in a preliminary report on the jurisdictional battle between Genoa and Syracuse over the hijacking case. The report from a prosecutor in the Court of Cassation in Rome, Italy’s highest criminal court, mentioned that officials in Syracuse were investigating Abbas.

Genoa has claimed jurisdiction in the hijacking case because the Achille Lauro began its cruise there. Syracuse magistrates say they should prosecute the case because the four men accused of hijacking the ship were arrested in Sicily. The Court of Cassation will decide the jurisdictional question.

‘Perplexed’ by Inquiry

Genoa Deputy Prosecutor Luigi Carli told the news agency ANSA that he was “perplexed” by the Syracuse inquiry because “there have not emerged any indications against Abbas” from Genoa’s investigation.

The news agency ANSA reported that Syracuse magistrates said that they had received information about Abbas’ possible involvement in the hijacking only after Italian authorities had allowed him to leave the country.

The United States has formally charged that Abbas, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee, masterminded the terrorist operation that led to the hijacking.

Abbas, who is also the leader of a PLO splinter group called the Palestine Liberation Front, helped negotiate an end to the two-day hijacking and was with the four hijackers on an Egyptian jet that was flying to Tunisia when U.S. warplanes intercepted it and forced it to land in Sicily on Oct. 11. The hijackers all claimed membership in the Palestine Liberation Front.

Italy arrested the four hijackers and charged them with several crimes. Despite pleas from the United States to arrest Abbas, the PLO official was allowed to flee to Yugoslavia. His present whereabouts are unknown.