Lebanese terrorist Mohammed Hamadei was sentenced to life imprisonment Wednesday by a Frankfurt court for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner and the murder of one of its passengers, U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem.
The sentence is the maximum in West Germany, which does not have capital punishment.
Judge Heiner Mueckenberger said the verdict proved Germany’s justice system would not be intimidated. Gunmen kidnapped two West German businessmen in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, an act seen as an attempt to influence the outcome of Hamadei’s trial.
Hamadei was arrested in June 1987 at Frankfurt airport on suspicion of carrying explosives.
The United States called for his extradition, but the West Germans rejected the request and promised that he would be tried with the same rigor as in an American court.
But in the United States, he could have faced the death penalty.
Hamadei admitted that he and an accomplice hijacked TWA Flight 847 in June 1985 and diverted the plane to Beirut, shortly after it took off from Athens airport.
He blamed the murder of Stethem, however, on his accomplice, who was never apprehended.
The plane, its passengers and crew were held hostage in Beirut for 17 days, until Israel agreed to the phased release of 700 Lebanese Shiites it had captured during fighting in southern Lebanon.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
