Suspect Seized in Hijacking of TWA Jet to Beirut in ’85

BONN — A man suspected of being involved in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner has been arrested in Frankfurt, West German officials announced Thursday.

The man, identified as Mohammed Ali Hamadi, 22, a Lebanese, was arrested at the Frankfurt airport after customs inspectors found that he was carrying “material that could be explosives.”

After Hamadi was fingerprinted, it was discovered that his prints matched some found aboard the hijacked TWA jetliner, according to U.S. military sources in West Germany.

Hamadi is suspected of being one of the three men who, on June 14, 1985, hijacked TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome. The plane was diverted to Beirut, where one of the passengers, U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, was killed. Thirty-nine other Americans were held for 16 days before they were set free.

U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington said they will ask the Bonn government to extradite the suspect to the United States for trial. German officials in Bonn said they will raise no objection to the extradition.

“The man . . . is a big fish,” Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann said.

Patrick Korten, a Justice Department spokesman, said: “We would very much like to have him sent to the United States to have him face charges pending against him. We are discussing it with the Germans.”

Korten described the TWA incident as “one of the most despicable acts of international terrorism ever carried out against Americans, and we would like to see him face the music.”

Hamadi and two others were named in criminal complaints and warrants issued by a federal court in Washington in July of 1985. All three are charged with air piracy and murder.

German officials in Frankfurt said Hamadi was arrested Tuesday after he arrived from Beirut aboard a Middle East Airlines flight. Customs officials at the airport found three wine bottles in his carry-on luggage containing methyl nitrate, a fluid similar to nitroglycerin that is sometimes used in making explosives.

Carrying Forged Passport

A police spokesman said the suspect denied knowing that the bottles contained explosives. He told the police the bottles were a gift. The German officials said the man was carrying a forged passport.

The three hijackers of Flight 847, believed to be Shia Muslims belonging to the extremist Hezbollah (Party of God) organization, released most of the passengers in the first few days after they took over the plane, but they detained 39 male hostages who were not freed until after intervention by Syrian officials and leaders of the Lebanese Shia Muslim militia Amal.

Later, the Israeli government, apparently in response to an American request, released hundreds of Lebanese who were being held as terrorists. The hijackers had demanded their release.

Vows to ‘Go After Them’

At the time of the hijacking, Secretary of State George P. Shultz said that his government knew the identity of the men responsible and would “go after them.”

Warrants were issued for the arrest of Hamadi, Ali Atweh and Hassan Izzaldin. U.S. officials identified a fourth man, Imad Mughniyah, as the planner of the hijacking but said he had not taken part in the actual seizure of the plane.

In Rome, meanwhile, Italian authorities said they were trying to determine whether there is a link between the man identified as Hamadi and a man arrested Monday at the Milan airport carrying 24 pounds of plastic explosives hidden in chocolate Easter eggs and picture frames.

Milan’s main newspaper, Corriere Della Sera, said that a five-man commando squad left Beirut recently to carry out attacks in various countries.