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Italy, Palestinians and US lay claim to terrorist leader
A CAPTURED Palestinian militant leader became the focus of an international tug-of-war yesterday as Italy demanded his extradition, Palestinians insisted that he be freed and the family of an American victim called for his trial in the United States.
Even as US forces hailed the capture of Abu Abbas, the veteran leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), as a blow against international terrorism, his status threatened to trigger a long and complex legal battle.
His fate lies in the bloody events he masterminded 18 years ago, when gunmen belonging to his radical Palestinian group seized the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean. They shot Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled American passenger, and threw his body and his wheelchair into the sea. Yesterday Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, the victim’s daughters, said that their father’s murderer should face justice on American soil.
“We want him tried here in our country. We want to know that he will serve his full sentence — which is hopefully a life sentence,” Lisa Klinghoffer, who spoke for her sister, said. “I hope this sends the message that no matter how many years go by, terrorists can’t run and terrorists can’t hide because they are going to be caught,” she told NBC.
A spokesman for US Central Command in Qatar appeared to agree. He said that the seizure of Abu Abbas was living proof that Iraq supported terrorism. “He was a terrorist and remains a terrorist,” Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks said.
However, Italy said yesterday that it had prior jurisdiction over Abu Abbas, who was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court to serve life imprisonment for masterminding the hijacking of the Achille Lauro as she sailed between Alexandria and Port Said in Egypt.
The trauma of the hijacking still reverberates in Italy. Roberto Castelli, the Justice Minister, said that Italy would apply for his extradition “once certain legal matters have been clarified”. He added: “We want to get Abu Abbas on to our territory.”
The Palestinian Authority, however, demanded that Abu Abbas be released, arguing that his detention violated an Israeli-Palestinian accord of 1995, under which members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) cannot be tried for offences committed before the Oslo peace accords of September 1993.
Four years ago the Israeli Supreme Court ruled reluctantly that Abu Abbas could not be tried in Israel if captured, even though “the late Leon Klinghoffer was murdered by despicable people and his blood cries out”.
Saeb Erekat, a member of the Palestinian leadership, said: “He visited the West Bank and Gaza several times with Israel’s co-operation, and for this reason we call on the US Administration to respect this agreement and liberate Abu Abbas straight away.”
Palestinian officials insisted that the United States was bound by the same 1995 accord, which had been signed by President Clinton, and that Abu Abbas had repeatedly described the killing of Klinghoffer as a “tragic error”.
Reem al-Nimr, Abu Abbas’s wife, said her husband had taken no part in the present Iraq war. “I hope the American authorities free him,” she told al-Jazeera television in Beirut. “Abu Abbas is not a member of (Iraq’s) Baath party or the Iraqi leadership and is not party to this war at all.”
Abu Abbas may have earned notoriety for his bloody exploits in the 1980s, but he was well past his prime when US special forces caught up with him in a Baghdad suburb on Monday night.
For the best part of a decade, the veteran leader of the PLF has been a fighter without a cause, who even branched out into the clothing business to make ends meet.
Born in Palestine in 1948, he grew up as a refugee in Syria and, like most of his generation, joined the PLO to fight Israel. Bold and charismatic, he formed his own faction and gained a reputation for daring and spectacular operations. He was injured fighting the Israelis during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Among his own people, however, Abu Abbas was nicknamed “Mr Disaster” for the chaotic consequences of his plans. His men pioneered the use of hot-air balloons, hang- gliders and speedboats to attack Israeli civilian targets, but in nearly every case his gunmen were killed or captured long before they could cause any harm.
Abu Abbas signed up to the Oslo peace accords, recognised Israel and was even granted an amnesty and allowed to return to Gaza and visit Israel. However, with the collapse of the peace process, he returned to Baghdad and took up his old cause.
Although he condemned the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington as “terrorism”, he was accused of training a new generation of fighters and of organising the payments from Saddam Hussein to relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Today the guerrilla leader cuts a pathetic rather than an intimidating figure. His hair is greying, he has put on weight, wears glasses and suffers from a heart ailment.
Asked what he would do if America attacked, he replied recently that he would fight. In the event, he tried twice to flee to Syria, but was refused entry.
Even as US forces hailed the capture of Abu Abbas, the veteran leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), as a blow against international terrorism, his status threatened to trigger a long and complex legal battle.
His fate lies in the bloody events he masterminded 18 years ago, when gunmen belonging to his radical Palestinian group seized the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean. They shot Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled American passenger, and threw his body and his wheelchair into the sea. Yesterday Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, the victim’s daughters, said that their father’s murderer should face justice on American soil.
“We want him tried here in our country. We want to know that he will serve his full sentence — which is hopefully a life sentence,” Lisa Klinghoffer, who spoke for her sister, said. “I hope this sends the message that no matter how many years go by, terrorists can’t run and terrorists can’t hide because they are going to be caught,” she told NBC.
A spokesman for US Central Command in Qatar appeared to agree. He said that the seizure of Abu Abbas was living proof that Iraq supported terrorism. “He was a terrorist and remains a terrorist,” Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks said.
However, Italy said yesterday that it had prior jurisdiction over Abu Abbas, who was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court to serve life imprisonment for masterminding the hijacking of the Achille Lauro as she sailed between Alexandria and Port Said in Egypt.
The trauma of the hijacking still reverberates in Italy. Roberto Castelli, the Justice Minister, said that Italy would apply for his extradition “once certain legal matters have been clarified”. He added: “We want to get Abu Abbas on to our territory.”
The Palestinian Authority, however, demanded that Abu Abbas be released, arguing that his detention violated an Israeli-Palestinian accord of 1995, under which members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) cannot be tried for offences committed before the Oslo peace accords of September 1993.
Four years ago the Israeli Supreme Court ruled reluctantly that Abu Abbas could not be tried in Israel if captured, even though “the late Leon Klinghoffer was murdered by despicable people and his blood cries out”.
Saeb Erekat, a member of the Palestinian leadership, said: “He visited the West Bank and Gaza several times with Israel’s co-operation, and for this reason we call on the US Administration to respect this agreement and liberate Abu Abbas straight away.”
Palestinian officials insisted that the United States was bound by the same 1995 accord, which had been signed by President Clinton, and that Abu Abbas had repeatedly described the killing of Klinghoffer as a “tragic error”.
Reem al-Nimr, Abu Abbas’s wife, said her husband had taken no part in the present Iraq war. “I hope the American authorities free him,” she told al-Jazeera television in Beirut. “Abu Abbas is not a member of (Iraq’s) Baath party or the Iraqi leadership and is not party to this war at all.”
Abu Abbas may have earned notoriety for his bloody exploits in the 1980s, but he was well past his prime when US special forces caught up with him in a Baghdad suburb on Monday night.
For the best part of a decade, the veteran leader of the PLF has been a fighter without a cause, who even branched out into the clothing business to make ends meet.
Born in Palestine in 1948, he grew up as a refugee in Syria and, like most of his generation, joined the PLO to fight Israel. Bold and charismatic, he formed his own faction and gained a reputation for daring and spectacular operations. He was injured fighting the Israelis during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Among his own people, however, Abu Abbas was nicknamed “Mr Disaster” for the chaotic consequences of his plans. His men pioneered the use of hot-air balloons, hang- gliders and speedboats to attack Israeli civilian targets, but in nearly every case his gunmen were killed or captured long before they could cause any harm.
Abu Abbas signed up to the Oslo peace accords, recognised Israel and was even granted an amnesty and allowed to return to Gaza and visit Israel. However, with the collapse of the peace process, he returned to Baghdad and took up his old cause.
Although he condemned the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington as “terrorism”, he was accused of training a new generation of fighters and of organising the payments from Saddam Hussein to relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Today the guerrilla leader cuts a pathetic rather than an intimidating figure. His hair is greying, he has put on weight, wears glasses and suffers from a heart ailment.
Asked what he would do if America attacked, he replied recently that he would fight. In the event, he tried twice to flee to Syria, but was refused entry.
1) Do the Oslo Accords really amount to an amnesty for what amounts to a crime codified in international law (ie Piracy)?
2 a) In the event that it does not, who do you think should get him? The US or Italians?
b) If the Italians get him, would he have to be retried or would he immediately start serving his life sentence?
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