Achille Lauro Suspect Accuses Terrorists’ Leader of Killing Klinghoffer

One of the suspects in the Oct. 7, 1985, hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship told a court Friday that the leader of his terrorist team shot and killed American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, disputing the leader’s claim he had been framed.

Ahmed Assadi, 23, the only one of the hijackers on trial to turn state’s evidence and renounce terrorism, also said the team received written orders from Abul Abbas, head of the Palestine Liberation Front, who is one of 10 defendants being tried in absentia.

As Assadi took the stand, hard-line defendants in the steel-barred cages flanking the underground courtroom shouted insults at him in Arabic. When Assadi finished his testimony, the hard-liners unleashed another uproar, banging the cage bars and shouting for about five minutes.

“Put him in the cage with us and we’ll finish him,” Youssef Molki, 23, leader of the hijack team, shouted at paramilitary carabinieri officers standing guard in the courtroom.

In testimony to the court Thursday, Molki reneged on his pretrial testimony and swore neither he nor any other member of the hijack team killed the 69-year-old Klinghoffer, whose body was thrown into the sea off the Syrian coast after he was shot. Molki said he was framed by the United States and Syria.

Asked why he was surprised that Molki killed Klinghoffer, Assadi said: “I don’t like bloodshed. He (Klinghoffer) was handicapped. Normally we don’t kill people.”

Assadi told the court he was “very agitated and very angry” and burst into tears when Klinghoffer’s wife, Marilyn, asked him what had happened to her husband, just after the killing.

“After an hour or two of asking me, I had to tell her,” he said. “I embraced her and kissed her on the forehead and told her I had nothing to do with it.” Marilyn Klinghoffer died of cancer in February.

Assadi said that aboard the Egyptian airliner which U.S. Navy jets intercepted and forced to land in Sicily after the hijacking, Abul Abbas told him that he would be tried and shot when they arrived in Tunisia because he had treated the hostages too kindly.

Police arrested the four hijackers on trial in Sicily, but the government let Abbas and an aide leave, saying they had no legal reason for holding them.

Italian investigators later decided that Abbas, who negotiated the surrender of the hijackers, was the mastermind of the operation.

Assadi said the four hijackers received a letter from Abbas three hours before the ship sailed from Genoa last Oct. 3 giving detailed instructions for the operation.

He said Abbas’ orders were that when the ship reached the Israeli port of Ashdod, two guerrillas were to get off and shoot as many Israelis as possible. The other two were to remain aboard and take the 300 passengers hostage to ensure the return of the two terrorists who went ashore.

The Achille Lauro was then to sail to Syria and demand the release of 50 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. If this was not done, the orders were to start shooting passengers at five-minute intervals, Assadi said.

Molki claimed that the Arabs hijacked the Achille Lauro before it reached Ashdod because a steward had discovered a member of the hijack team preparing hand grenades.

Assadi said the hijackers were trained in Algeria in February, 1985, and told they were to carry out a suicide operation. He also said Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat knew nothing about the plans for the hijacking.

Of the four defendants in court, Ibrahim Abdelatif, described as Molki’s right-hand man, and Mowfak Gandura, reputed to be a colonel in Palestine Liberation Front, have yet to testify.