A Lebanese hijacker who served 17 years in a Swiss prison for killing a passenger and seriously wounding a flight attendant in 1987 has been released and deported to Lebanon, officials said Sunday. Hussein Hariri agreed to immediate deportation and was sent to Beirut Tuesday on a chartered plane with two other Lebanese who had been living in Switzerland illegally, said Dominique Boillat, spokesman for the Federal Refugee Office, confirming a report in the weekly Le Matin Dimanche.
| Sigh, terrorists, what a nuisance. |
Hariri was sentenced to life in prison after he commandeered an Air Afrique DC-10 flying from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to Paris on July 23, 1987. He demanded the release of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held by France, West Germany and Israel. Hariri, who was 21 at the time of the hijacking, wanted to be flown to Beirut but agreed to a refueling stop in Geneva where he shot dead a French passenger when his deadline for refueling expired. Swiss police stormed the plane and arrested Hariri after crew members overpowered him. A flight attendant was shot and seriously injured when he tackled Hariri. During his 1989 trial, Hariri told the court he was a "soldier of God" and did not want to kill. He refused to testify about allegations he was on a mission for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Life sentences in Switzerland usually last 20 years.
| Makes you wonder how long death lasts in Switzerland... |
Le Matin reported Hariri would have been eligible for release last spring, but he was held six months longer because he had escaped to Morocco during a 2002 prison furlough. He was held in a Moroccan jail for several months before being returned to Switzerland in August 2003. He also escaped from Swiss prison in 1992, but was recaptured a week later.
| That also makes me wonder if dead people get furloughs from their condition in Switzerland. |
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