TERRORISM Paroled hijacker returns to Lebanon

The United States is asking Lebanon to turn him over.
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- A hijacker in a terrorist drama that riveted America -- the 1985 seizure of a TWA jet in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed -- has returned home to Lebanon, paroled by Germany after serving 19 years of a life sentence.
The United States said Tuesday it wants Lebanon to turn over Mohammed Ali Hamadi for trial in the killing of the diver, Robert Dean Stethem.
"We have demonstrated over the years that when we believe an individual is responsible for the murder of innocent American civilians, that we will track them down and that we will bring them to justice in the United States," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
He said the United States is talking with the Lebanese government about Hamadi, but the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon.
Hamadi was in temporary Lebanese custody, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations with the Lebanese are confidential. A senior Lebanese judicial official contacted by The Associated Press declined to comment.
What happened
Trans World Airlines Flight 847, with 145 passengers and nine crew members, was flying from Athens to Rome on June 14, 1985, when it was hijacked by Shiite Muslim militants demanding the release of hundreds of Lebanese from Israeli jails.
During a 17-day ordeal, the plane was forced to crisscross the Mediterranean from Lebanon to Algeria, landing in Beirut three times before it was finally allowed to remain there.
An urgent radio transmission from the unflappable TWA pilot, John Testrake, to the Beirut control tower was broadcast around the world: "We must, I repeat, we must land repeat, at Beirut. ... Ground, TWA 847, they are threatening to kill the passengers; they are threatening to kill the passengers. We must have fuel; we must get fuel. ... They are beating the passengers; they are beating the passengers."
The ordeal produced one of the most enduring images of terrorism: a picture of Testrake leaning out of the cockpit window as a hijacker clamped a hand over his mouth and waved a pistol.
On the second day of the seizure, the hijackers beat and shot to death Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md., and dumped his body onto the runway in Beirut.
Witnesses later identified Hamadi as having beaten the tied-up Stethem.
According to testimony at Hamadi's trial, when Stethem complained about his bonds, Hamadi responded: "Let the pig suffer."
The plane's flight engineer testified at the 1989 trial that Hamadi bragged he had killed Stethem.
On Tuesday, the prosecutor's office in Frankfurt, Germany, announced Hamadi's release, saying he had been freed and left the country several days earlier after his case came up for a regular legally mandated review by a parole court.
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