Nicaragua May Put Captured American on Trial

The Nicaraguan government is preparing criminal charges against captured American Eugene Hasenfus and will likely put him on trial, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

Alejandro Bendana, secretary general of the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, said the bodies of two other Americans killed when Sandinista troops shot down a rebel supply plane Sunday will be released to the U.S. Embassy.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Alberto Fernandez said officials received a diplomatic note late Wednesday, saying Sandinista officials would allow consular officers to see Hasenfus. The note did not name a time or date.

“It was very vague. I think they put it that way because they haven’t decided yet,” Fernandez said.

Hasenfus’ wife, Sally, 32, arrived in Managua late Wednesday and will apparently be allowed to see her husband.

The Sandinista government also sent a letter to Secretary of State George P. Shultz protesting the supply flight with three Americans aboard and reiterating charges that it was part of a CIA operation. The note said the flight and the approval of $100 million in aid to the rebels, called contras, “are steps that elevate the magnitude of this conflict and threaten to unleash a war of incalculable proportions.”

In Army Custody

Pilot William J. Cooper and co-pilot Wallace Blaine Sawyer were killed when Sandinista troops shot down their camouflaged C-123 in a remote area of the southern province of Rio San Juan. Hasenfus, 45, parachuted out of the aircraft before it crashed and was captured on Monday. A fourth crewman, said to be of Latin heritage but still unidentified, was also killed.

Military officials said Hasenfus remains in army custody and is being interrogated by officials from the army and the Interior Ministry, which oversees Nicaragua’s police forces.

“The Interior Ministry wants to know certain things and the army wants to know other things,” said an army official.

Civilian and military officials indicated that Nicaraguan authorities wanted to finish interrogating Hasenfus before allowing him to be interviewed by U.S. consular officers. They suggested that Hasenfus also may be interviewed by the press before he is seen by embassy officials, who, they believe, will pressure him to keep quiet.

“It is obvious that the guy knows a lot. He has been involved in this type of operation before, and he has a lot of knowledge regarding CIA covert operations in Central America and other parts of the world,” said a Sandinista official who asked not to be identified.

No Protest to El Salvador

On Tuesday, Nicaraguan officials displayed to reporters an identification card that Hasenfus allegedly was carrying identifying him as a U.S. adviser in El Salvador and giving him access to restricted areas of El Salvador’s principal air force base.

Bendana said the Nicaraguan government did not expect to send a formal protest to the government of El Salvador.

“Our problem is not with El Salvador, Costa Rica or Honduras. It is with the use of their territory by the United States to wage its war against us,” said Bendana.

Foreign Ministry officials said the Ministry of Justice is preparing charges against Hasenfus and is determining whether he would be tried by a civilian or military court or by the Popular Anti-Somocista Tribunals, special courts set up under a state of emergency to try political crimes.

“He most likely will stand trial,” said Bendana. “But of course it’s the Reagan Administration that should be on trial here.”

Officials said they did not know what the charges against Hasenfus might be, but some Sandinista sources suggested that he could be tried for illegal arms trafficking, aiding and abetting terrorism, illegal entry into the country and conspiring to commit a crime.

The three Sandinista soldiers who shot down the supply plane were decorated with medals in a televised ceremony at the Defense Ministry.