Two Palestinian terrorists serving prison terms for their part in the October 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking were released last month and expelled from Italy, the news media disclosed Wednesday.
Mohammed Issa Abbas, who provided weapons to the four hijackers who seized the Italian cruise ship, and Yusuf Sa’ad, who served as paymaster, had their sentences commuted. They are believed now to be in Algeria.
Italian newspapers expressed indignation that convicted terrorists were set free at a time when all of Europe is on the alert for possible terrorist activity growing out of the Persian Gulf war.
And in Washington, B’nai B’rith International deplored the early release of the two convicted terrorists.
Kent Schiner, the organization’s president, said, “This perverse action certainly sends an encouraging signal to terrorists everywhere and is a crushing blow to the war against terrorism being waged by the civilized world.”
The Achille Lauro, sailing from Genoa on a Mediterranean cruise with a large number of American tourists aboard, was seized on Oct. 7, 1985 while in Egyptian waters.
The vessel and all aboard were held captive until Oct. 10. In that period, Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jew confined to a wheelchair by a stroke, was shot to death by one of the hijackers and thrown into the sea.
Abbas is a cousin of Mohammed (Abul) Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front and mastermind of the hijacking. Abul Abbas was tried and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a court in Genoa for the crime.
Italy does not have capital punishment.
Sa’ad received a six-year sentence for importing money for the hijacking.
Issa Abbas, a Syrian, was convicted in two trials on separate charges. In 1986, he was sentenced to six months for using a false passport to help the hijackers. In November 1985, he was convicted of smuggling the weapons used in the hijacking to Genoa from Tunis.
The men’s lawyer, Gianfranco Pagano, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that they took advantage of the fact that the law governing the commutation of sentences does not exclude crimes connected with terrorism.
Pagan said the two were freed under a Christmas pardon and left for Algeria early in January.
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