Greek Police Arrest Suspect In 1985 Deadly Airliner Hijacking

Greek Police Arrest Suspect in 1985 Deadly Airliner Hijacking

Greek police said Saturday they had arrested a man thought to be one of Hezbollah-linked militants who hijacked a passenger plane and killed a US Navy driver in 1985

ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2019) Greek police said Saturday they had arrested a man thought to be one of Hezbollah-linked militants who hijacked a passenger plane and killed a US Navy driver in 1985.

"The wanted man was brought to court which ruled to keep him in custody," the South Aegean regional police department said in a statement.

The 65-year-old was detained Thursday on the island of Mykonos. He is wanted by Germany on charges of terrorism and kidnapping.

Greek media said he was a Lebanese traveling on a cruise ship which had made stops on Rhodes and Santorini and was about to head back to Turkey. The man denied the charges.

Lebanese fighters hijacked a Trans World Airlines plane in Athens on June 14, 1985 and held the crew of eight and 145 passengers hostage for 17 days as they demanded the release of Muslim prisoners from Israeli jails.

They flew the plane to Beirut where they swapped several passengers for fuel before flying to Algeria and back to Lebanon where they shot the American dead for putting up resistance. The kidnapped were freed as a result of negotiations.

The suspected hijackers were detained in Frankfurt, Germany in 1987 and were to be extradited to the United States when their accomplices abducted two Germans in Beirut and exchanged them for the arrested.