West Germany Seizes Suspect in ’85 Hijacking

A Palestinian described as a “big fish” in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner to Beirut was arrested when he tried to smuggle explosives into West Germany, authorities said today.

Officials in Washington said efforts are under way to return Mohammed Ali Hamadi, 22, to the United States to stand trial on charges stemming from the hijacking.

The United States and West Germany have an extradition treaty, officials said.

The hijacking, which involved the murder of a U.S. Navy diver, was “one of the most despicable acts of international terrorism ever carried out against Americans and we would like to see him face the music,” said Justice Department spokesman Patrick Korten.

Explosives Found

Hamadi was taken into custody Tuesday after customs officials at Frankfurt airport found explosives inside his luggage, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said.

The suspect, who was traveling under a forged passport, apparently planned a terror bombing in West Germany, informed sources said.

Hamadi’s fingerprints were later found to match those of a suspect sought under an international arrest warrant in the hijacking of a TWA passenger jet after it took off from Athens on a flight to Rome on June 14, 1985.

The Shia Muslim gunmen ordered the pilot of TWA Flight 847 to crisscross the Mediterranean three times. The terrorists killed passenger Robert Dean Stethem, the U.S. Navy diver, during one stop in Beirut before the plane finally landed there to stay.

Hostages Held 17 Days

Many of the 153 passengers and crew members, most Americans, were released in the early stages of the drama. But 39 American hostages were held in West Beirut, some for up to 17 days, before the hostage ordeal ended June 30.

The hijacking was resolved through diplomatic efforts involving the United States, Israel and Syria.

Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann told a Bonn news conference that Hamadi was “a big fish” in the hijacking, but authorities did not provide details about his role in the affair. Interior Ministry sources provided the man’s name.

Hamadi was one of three men named in arrest warrants and criminal complaints issued by a federal court in Washington in July, 1985, alleging air piracy and murder in the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and the killing of Stethem.