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U.S. Seeks Death Penalty for Pakistani Hijacking Suspect
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. government is trying to execute a hijacker for the first time, seeking the death penalty for the leader of a group of Palestinian terrorists who took over a Pan Am jet in Pakistan in 1986 and killed 22 people. Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini won the first round in the legal battle, convincing U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan that the death penalty does not apply in his case. Prosecutors have asked Sullivan to reconsider. A hearing is expected this fall.New York City attorney Gerald Lefcourt, former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the case is an example of Attorney General John Ashcroft aggressively seeking the maximum penalty for a crime rather than a desire to send a message to would-be hijackers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. "Ashcroft has established a policy of seeking the death penalty," Lefcourt said. "Itâs about his view of the death penalty and not 9-11. Itâs about his belief that the death penalty should be used in just about every circumstance it can be used." And this is a problem because ... Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo agreed, but added that would-be hijackers should take note, too. "Whenever the government seeks the death penalty in a federal case it is meant to send a message to not just those who would commit these types of barbaric crimes but to the public that justice is applied equally from coast to coast," said Corallo, who knows of no other time the government has sought the death penalty for a hijacker. Someone has to be first. Congrats to Safarini! Court papers say Safarini led a group of four men, all members of the Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist organization, who boarded Pan Am Flight 73 on Sept. 5, 1986, while the Boeing 747 jet was parked at Karachi Airport in Pakistan. The men said they wanted to be flown out of Pakistan and demanded that prisoners in Cyprus and Israel be released. After a 15-hour standoff, the hijackers gathered the passengers and crew in one area of the plane and began shooting and throwing hand grenades. In all, 22 people were killed and more than 100 wounded before the men were apprehended. Okay, Iâve heard enough to think he deserves the DP. The four hijackers, and a fifth mastermind, were convicted in Pakistan and given death sentences that were commuted to life imprisonment. Four of the terrorists remain behind bars, but Safariniâs sentence was reduced by a series of amnesties and he was released Sept. 27, 2001. U.S. law enforcement agents apprehended him the next day as he traveled to Jordan to join relatives. Paks tossed him and tipped us, eh? With Safarini behind bars, defense lawyers in October 2002 offered a guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence, court filings show. Prosecutors rejected the offer. That was their first clue that they were in deep doo-doo. In court filings, defense lawyer Robert Tucker said the death penalty could not be applied in this case. The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 but it took Congress 12 years to write a new death penalty law, making some drug-related crimes capital offenses. Dozens of other crimes, including air piracy, were added in 1994. Tucker said the 1994 law canât be retroactively applied to a 1986 hijacking. Sullivan agreed, ruling April 10 that the government could not seek the death penalty. Prosecutors asked Sullivan to reconsider, saying a 1974 air piracy law should apply. "It certainly makes no sense to conclude that Congress, in greatly expanding the reach of the death penalty ... silently intended to eliminate all procedures for carrying out a death sentence for all air piracy offenses committed before 1994," Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Maisel wrote. Govtâs case actually sounds pretty weak; the 1976 ruling wiped the DP slate clean. Safarini will die in Marion. Posted by: Steve White 2003-09-13 |
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