Abbas Gets Life for Hijack, Murder

GENOA, Italy--Fugitive Palestinian guerrilla leader Mohammed Abbas and five followers were convicted yesterday of hijacking the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killing a wheelchair-bound American passenger.

Abbas and two fellow fugitives were given life sentences, but the hijacker accused of actually killing the 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer received a lesser sentence--30 years in prison.

Five defendants were convicted of lesser charges in the hijacking, and four others, all fugitives, were acquitted.

Italian authorities acknowledged there was little chance that Abbas, said to have masterminded the hijacking, would ever serve his term.

Three of the hijackers, who were among the five defendants in custody, received prison terms ranging from 15 to 30 years. Prosecutor Luigi Francesco Meloni said he probably would appeal for stiffer sentences.

Klinghoffer's daughters and several Americans who were held hostage during the Oct. 7-9 hijacking criticized the hijackers' sentences as too lenient.

"We had every hope that the Italian judicial system would impose the maximum penalty possible," Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer said in a joint statement issued in New York. "Sadly, we are greatly disillusioned and disappointed."

The hijacking's aftermath severely strained U.S.-Italian relations and caused the government to fall briefly when Italian authorities refused to detain Abbas after a U.S. warplane forced an Egyptian jet carrying him and the hijackers to land in Sicily.

Despite a U.S. warrant for Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front faction of the PLO, Italian officials at first said they lacked evidence he had any role in the hijacking other than helping negotiate its end. They later issued a warrant for him but he had gone underground.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said, "The United States is pleased that persons responsible for the death of an American citizen and injury and damages to others have been convicted."

But he added, "We regret that the murder of Leon Klinghoffer was not treated more severely."

Kalb also said the U.S. government "reserved its legal right to seek extradition of the hijackers once all Italian legal proceedings, including appeals, are ended."

Four Palestinians commandeered the Achille Lauro off the Egyptian coast and demanded that Israel release 51 jailed Palestinians. Klinghoffer was shot to death and thrown overboard.

Youssef Magied al-Molqi, 23, was the hijacker accused of Klinghoffer's killing. Investigators said he confessed, but al-Molqi retracted the statement during the trial.

Hijackers Ibrahim Fatyer Abdelatif, 20, and Ahmad Marrouf al Assadi, 24, were sentenced respectively to 24 years and two months and 15 years and two months. Assadi cooperated with authorities and was not present when the verdict was read.

Another hijacker will be tried later in juvenile court.

Molqi, Abdelatif and two other defendants responded to the verdict by shouting in Arabic, "Long live Palestine!" "Long live Italian justice!" and "Long live [PLO Chairman Yasser] Arafat!" A courtroom interpreter translated their shouts.

Judge Lino Monteverde, who presided over the three-week trial, said the jury took into account that the commandos "had grown up in the tragic conditions which the Palestinian people endure."

The other convicted fugitives sentenced to life in prison were Ozzuddin Badrakkam, described as the Palestine Liberation Front's military chief, and Ziad el Omar, who bought the hijackers' cruise tickets.

Two defendants in custody--Abbas' cousin, Mohammad Issa Abbas, and PLO member Mowffaq Said Gandura--received lighter sentences.