Achille Lauro Fugitive Caught by Spain Police
A Palestinian terrorist convicted of killing an elderly American aboard the hijacked cruise ship Achille Lauro was captured Friday in Spain, three weeks after he failed to return from a prison furlough.
Tipped off by an intercepted phone call, Spanish police tracked Youssef Molqi to the southern town of Estepona. He was unarmed and offered no resistance, Italian Police Chief Fernando Masone said.
Authorities were still trying to determine Molqi’s escape route after he failed to report back to a Rome prison Feb. 28 during a 12-day prison “holiday.”
Spanish police found the terrorist after intercepting a telephone call he made March 16 to a friend in Prato, a town near Florence, Masone said.
Molqi, 33, is the third terrorist out of the four-member team of hijackers to escape Italy while serving time for the 1985 hijacking of the Italian liner.
The escape of Molqi, who is serving a 30-year sentence, particularly angered the United States because he is the hijacker convicted of shooting Leon Klinghoffer as the 69-year-old New Yorker sat in his wheelchair on the ship’s deck.
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