Three Gunmen Surrender at Airport in France; Last Hostages Released

Three gunmen who seized dozens of hostages in a crowded courtroom for a day and then drove to a nearby airport chained to several of their victims surrendered to police today.

No injuries were reported when the three heavily armed men surrendered after freeing the last two of their hostages, 45-year-old criminal court Judge Dominique Bailhache and one of his assistants, Bernard Bureau.

The 32-hour drama ended on a runway at the Chateau-Bougon airport, where the gunmen went with their hostages in hopes of talking police into giving them a Mystere 20 government jet in which to escape.

Demand Rejected

Police rejected their demand that they take their hostages with them, and the two Frenchmen who had been on trial for armed robbery and a Moroccan who tried to free them surrendered.

Jean Chevance, a Loire regional police official, said the gunmen had mentioned to negotiators that they might want to go to Switzerland or Morocco but had no precise destination.

“Our priority is the liberation of the hostages and the negotiations can last several more hours, or days, because we want to avoid the use of force. Our goal is to liberate the hostages without bloodshed,” Chevance said before the surrender.

The airport had been ordered evacuated and only police, airport technicians and journalists were allowed to remain during the tense standoff, as police sharpshooters took up positions on the airport terminal roof.

Anti-Terrorist Team

The plane had brought Police Commissioner Robert Broussard, one of France’s top anti-terrorist officers, and his team to Nantes, about 200 miles southwest of Paris.

The gunmen reached the airport by driving a Renault van from the city’s courthouse, where they took several dozen people hostage during a trial Thursday and seized the courthouse for more than 27 hours.

All but four of the hostages won their freedom the next day. Then, this afternoon, the gunmen left the courthouse handcuffed to the four judicial officials still under their control.

Each gunman carried a .357 magnum pistol and hand grenades.

The group stepped into the beige Renault and, with police and journalists looking on, they left for the airport.

Four or five police vehicles--some carrying officers in bulletproof vests--followed, forming a convoy that wound through Nantes streets and eventually arrived at the airport.

Judge Set Free

Upon arrival, the gunmen freed substitute Judge Philippe Varin and Francois Dior, an assistant to the presiding judge. They continued to hold Bailhache, 45, and Bureau.

The hostage-taking began Thursday while Bailhache was presiding over an armed robbery trial involving George Courtois, 34, Patrick Thiollet, 24, and two other people.

Abdel Karim Khalfi, a 30-year-old Moroccan and self-proclaimed Muslim extremist, burst into the courtroom shortly before noon, disarmed five police officers and fired a warning shot into the ceiling.

Extremist Group

Courtois and Thiollet leaped over the dock and took the arms given by Khalfi, who claimed to be a member of Palestinian extremist Abu Nidal’s guerrilla group.

Courtois, in a rambling speech to those in the courtroom filmed by a television journalist and shown on national television, said he had met Khalfi in prison and embraced his cause of political extremism.

But the overriding demand that emerged in the hours that followed was not one of political concerns, and police doubted there was a political motive to the hostage-taking. The gunmen seemed simply to want to go free.

Shortly before leaving today, Courtois said he was ready to kill the hostages and then himself unless police let him and the two other gunmen go free.

“We are not afraid of death,” Courtois said. “Let us leave or the worst will happen.”

All told, 35 people were taken hostage. Twenty-one were freed Thursday, nine jurors were let loose today and a court clerk escaped before dawn amid confusion that erupted when the hostage-takers tried to flee with their captives, police said.