U.S. Sentences Arab Hijacker to 30 Years

In a landmark case testing new U.S. counterterrorism laws, Lebanese terrorist Fawaz Younis was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for hijacking a Jordanian plane and holding its 70 passengers and crew in 1985. Two Americans were on board the flight.

Although the imprisonment fell far short of the life sentence demanded by the prosecution, U.S. Atty. Jay Stephens said, “A clear message has been sent to those who are contemplating terrorist acts that the . . . United States will go to great lengths to bring those individuals to justice.”

The outcome of the United States’ first international terrorism trial “vindicates the rights of those victims who were aboard the aircraft,” he said.

Could Be Free in 8 Years

But Younis, who was ordered by U.S. District Judge Aubrey Robinson to serve three concurrent terms of 30 years for taking hostages, 20 years for aircraft piracy and five years for conspiracy, will be eligible for parole in eight years.

Younis, who showed no emotion after the sentence was announced, has been given credit for the two years that he has already been in jail. In his statement to the judge before sentencing, the 30-year-old Shiite Muslim Lebanese asked, “Had I been a member of the Contras in Central America, would my act then be considered terrorism or freedom fighting?”

Younis was found not guilty in March of three additional charges of assaulting passengers and blowing up the plane after passengers had been freed. No one was killed in the 30-hour air heist, which was organized to fly to Tunisia to appeal to the Arab League to remove all Palestinians from Lebanon.

In one of several ironic twists, a Palestinian hijacked a Middle East Airlines plane the next day to protest the Shiite demands that Palestinians leave Lebanon. The two Americans on board the first hijacking were also flying on the second hijacked aircraft.

The defense plans to appeal the case by challenging the constitutionality of two anti-terrorism laws that give the United States extraterritorial jurisdiction over foreign hijackings and hostage abductions involving Americans.

The sentence was announced two years after Younis became the target of an elaborate “sting” operation in which he was lured from Beirut to a yacht docked in international waters off Cyprus by U.S. authorities. Both of Younis’ wrists were broken during the arrest.

Younis, who claimed during the trial that he had carried out the hijacking on orders of his commander in a Lebanese militias, said he did not know in advance that any Americans were on board and that the hijacking was not aimed at the United States.

Judge Robinson said that he did not impose the life sentence because of Younis’ actions during the hijacking. “There were two people with serious medical conditions (on the plane). He got them off. There is some indication of sensitivity,” he said.

Although Jordanian air marshals were assaulted during the hijacking, Younis testified that he ordered the beatings stopped--a claim substantiated in court by two of the hijack victims.

The case is considered important by U.S. counterterrorism officials because it sets a precedent for U.S. policy in the aftermath of the 1986-87 arms-for-hostages debacle, in which the United States shipped arms to Iran in an attempt to gain freedom for American hostages held by Iranian allies in Lebanon.

Over the past two years, the United States has attempted to establish its credibility by bringing suspected terrorists to justice.

Court-appointed defense attorney Francis Carter said that he will appeal the case within 10 days on grounds that two anti-terrorism laws, passed in 1984 and 1986, violate the 1973 Montreal Convention. The treaty, signed by the United States, stipulates that the primary rights of prosecution should be in one of three countries--where the hijacking was initiated, where the plane later landed or where the aircraft was based.

But the convention also says that if a suspected hijacker is arrested in a fourth country, and if his extradition is not sought by one of the primary countries, the fourth country may try him.