W. Germany Indicts Hamadi in ’85 TWA Hijacking, Murder
Mohammed Ali Hamadi, the Lebanese whose arrest prompted the kidnapings of West Germans in Beirut, was indicted today on charges of murder and air piracy in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner, officials said.
A U.S. Navy diver was killed in the 1985 hijacking, and 39 Americans were held hostage in Beirut for 17 days.
Hamadi was arrested in January, 1987, at Frankfurt Airport after customs officials found explosives in his baggage.
Hamadi’s older brother, Abbas Ali Hamadi, is on trial in a Duesseldorf court on charges that he masterminded the kidnaping of two West German businessmen to force the West German government to release his brother.
After the kidnaping, the West German government rejected a U.S. request to extradite Mohammed Hamadi.
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