Posted on 12/21/2005 10:31:07 AM PST by txroadkill
KEHL AM RHEIN, Germany (UPI) -- Freeing a Hezbollah member sentenced to life in prison for killing a U.S. Navy Diver may turn into yet another setback for the trans-Atlantic friendship German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to strengthen.
Mohammad Ali Hammadi last Thursday left his prison in North-Rhine Westphalia after a parole board and psychologists decided he was eligible for early release. A U.S. State Department spokesman on Tuesday said Washington was \'disappointed\' by the development.
Hammadi served nearly 19 years in prison for his involvement in the 1985 hijacking of a U.S. TWA passenger plane and the brutal killing of a man on board, Robert Stethem, a 23-year-old Navy sailor.
Orchestrated by the radical Shiite group Hezbollah, the hijacking was one of the most publicized terrorist attacks of the decade. It involved the killing of Stethem, who was dropped onto the Beirut Airport runway, and culminated in the release of more than 700 Shiite prisoners from Israel.
Hammadi was arrested at Frankfurt Airport in 1987 when security found liquid explosives in his luggage. At the time, Washington tried to get him extradited to the United States, but Germany denied the request, partly because it wanted to save the lives of several Germans held hostage in Lebanon. Hammadi was tried and convicted in a German court and sentenced to life in prison, which in Germany holds a term of 25 years.
\'We were certainly disappointed at the time that we didn`t get our hands on him then,\' State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington Tuesday. \'And we are disappointed now that he has been released before the end of his full sentence. I think it`s clear that ... we would have preferred that he stand trial in the United States.\'
There, Hammadi might have faced the death penalty.
The release couldn`t come at a worse time for Merkel, who in January is due to make her first trip to the White House as the head of the new left-right grand coalition government.
Merkel had vowed to strengthen the trans-Atlantic friendship weakened under her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, but that attempt has already been undermined by the scandal surrounding Khaled el-Masri, a German national abducted by the CIA and held in Afghanistan for five months because he was mistakenly believed to be an al-Qaida member.
German-U.S. intelligence cooperation has been further clouded by reports claiming the CIA used Germany as its main European hub for transporting terror suspects in and out of the continent.
Hammadi`s release has been a quiet affair. He was freed Thursday and on Friday flew to Beirut Airport where his family greeted him, Hammadi`s German lawyer, Gabriele Steck-Bromme, told Der Spiegel`s online edition.
She said Hammadi has turned his back on terrorism, has completed an apprenticeship in prison and wants to start a new life in Lebanon.
Some say Hammadi`s swift and silent release may be connected to the freeing of Susanne Osthoff three days later. Osthoff, a German archaeologist abducted in Iraq nearly four weeks ago, was released last Sunday.
Berlin has denied the cases are connected, and says state officials, not the federal government, are responsible for granting Hammadi parole.
Meanwhile, McCormack said Washington would aim to try Hammadi before a U.S. court, adding that it was in talks with the Lebanese government about turning him over. No extradition treaty exists between the two nations.
Tim Stuchtey, head of the HumboldtInstitution on trans-Atlantic issues, said Hammadi`s release is not likely to create a real rift between Washington and Berlin.
\'We simply have different legal systems,\' he told United Press International in a telephone interview.
Washington, however, has indicated it wasn`t satisfied with German laws.
\'According to their laws and their interpretation of the laws, he has in fact served a sentence for all the potential crimes that may have been committed. In our view, he has not,\' McCormack said.
How do you know so much? Do you live in Germany? Just curious.
Thanks for the ping BTW
Oh yeah,,,Merry Christmas to you and your family too!!!!
It was an early release and Ostoff was released just three days later. Coincidence? BS. Clearly there were negoitiations between the terrorists and the German government.
If you recall, on October 29, 1972 a German Lufthansa jet was hijacked and demands were made for the release of the three Black September members being held for trial for the Munich massacre. The men were subsequently released by Germany. Some commentators suspect that the German government released the terrorists to avoid the embarrassment of having to deal with them.
Michael81Dus is one of our German Freepers.
Click on his name for more information.
Duh!!!!thanks,,,lol
Early release? Surely not!! 19 years imprisonment is years above the average for the crimes Hammadi committed!!
LOL, yeah, thanks! :-)
The way we handle these cases are not much different handled in all other EU countries. Often, one thinks it is ok that even murderers get a 2nd chance (I mean, mercy is a Christian value), but often enough it makes me sick seeing the scumbags walking out of prison.
Liberal socialists.
When your welfare and unions sink your econony to the level of Honduras I'll surely laugh.
if you have a ping list add me to it and btw Rammstein Rocks :)
Mohammad Ali Hammadi last Thursday left his prison in North-Rhine Westphalia after a parole board and psychologists decided he was eligible for early release.
Michael, you are sooooo wrong. This is not just a horrible coincidence, it was planned and part of the bargain to get the german woman back. It also cost german taxpayers (and the soldiers in Iraq) a pretty pfenning. (wink, wink).
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