Hamadi Father, Mother Testify at Hijack Trial

The parents of Mohammed Hamadi testified at his trial today, with his father saying the confessed hijacker was under 21 at the time of the incident and his mother saying he was innocent.

The defendant burst into tears when his mother entered the courtroom.

Hamadi, a Lebanese Shia Muslim, is charged with murder and air piracy in the June, 1985, hijacking of a TWA jetliner to Beirut. U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem, 23, was killed and 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days.

Chief Judge Heiner Mueckenberger told Hamadi’s mother, Fatima, that relatives can refuse to testify “because it’s easy to give false statements out of love.”

‘My Son Is Innocent’

She replied: “I know that my son is innocent. I know that he’s very young and that we live under terrible conditions” in Beirut.

Of the case itself, she said: “I don’t know anything about this. I can’t read or write.”

Hamadi has admitted taking part in the hijacking but denied killing Stethem.

Fatima Hamadi and her 59-year-old husband, Ali Hassan, traveled to Frankfurt from Beirut last week to testify. When she walked into the courtroom today, in a black dress with a white shawl covering her head, Mohammed Hamadi stood up until she was seated in the witness stand.

Those accused of terrorism in the Middle East seldom face trial and it is even rarer for parents of a defendant to appear in court.

Ali Hassan Hamadi testified that his son fought with the Shia militia Amal in Beirut “because war had begun and everyone fought.”

Court records show Mohammed Hamadi was born June 13, 1964. The father, when asked the birth date, said:

“He was born on Lebanon’s Independence Day, Nov. 22, in 1964. I can remember because it’s a holiday and I did not have to work that day.”

His age at the time of the hijacking--whether he was a juvenile or an adult--is important in determining the length of the prison sentence if Mohammed Hamadi is convicted.