Juvenile Court Gets Hijack Case
Frankfurt officials said today that Mohammed Ali Hamadi, charged with air piracy and murder in the 1985 TWA hijacking to Beirut, will be tried before a juvenile court because he was only 20 at the time.
The decision means Hamadi faces a maximum of 10 years imprisonment if convicted rather than life imprisonment. In the hijacking, Shia Muslim gunmen seized a TWA jetliner on an Athens-to-Rome flight and forced it to Beirut. A U.S. Navy diver was killed and 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days before being released. The United States wanted to extradite Hamadi, but West Germany refused after two of its citizens were kidnaped in Lebanon.
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