Taiwan Gives Hijacker a 9-Year Term

The Taiwan government, seeking to end a spate of hijackings that saw 10 mainland Chinese airliners commandeered to Taipei last year, Tuesday sentenced one hijacker to nine years in prison and recommended 12-year terms for three others.

Zhang Wenlong, 28, a former Chinese army officer who sought political asylum in Taiwan, was sentenced after being convicted of air piracy and violating national security laws by the district court in the northern county of Taoyuan.

Using a switchblade and a toy pistol, he forced a Xiamen Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 72 people to fly to Taiwan on June 24 and asked for political asylum. Two crew members were slightly injured in a scuffle on the plane.

Zhang, who retired from the Chinese army with the rank of lieutenant in 1989, told reporters he would appeal the verdict. His case was the second of the 10 hijackings.

Those charged Tuesday were Zhang Hai, a chauffeur, and self-proclaimed pro-democracy dissidents Li Xiangyu and Han Shuxue. Both of those hijackings occurred in November.

Taiwan has so far rejected China’s demands for the hijackers to be repatriated. But it has said they will be punished severely to deter future incidents and then deported from Taiwan after they serve their sentences.

Fourteen Chinese hijackers involved in last year’s incidents, all of them asylum-seekers, are now being held in Taiwan. The two men who hijacked the first plane have been sentenced to 10-year prison terms.