GAZA CITY, April 16: The Palestinian leadership on Wednesday slammed as “illegal” the arrest by US forces in Baghdad of Palestinian radical chief Abu Abbas, the mastermind behind the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise liner, and called for his immediate release.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, meanwhile, said the arrest was a direct assault on the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is headed by Yasser Arafat and includes Abbas’ Palestine Liberation Front.

“We ask the US administration for the immediate release of Abu Abbas and for it to respect the 1995 interim agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel ... and signed by (then) US president Bill Clinton,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat told AFP.

He pointed to one of its clauses that says PLO members cannot be arrested or tried for acts committed before September 1993, when the first Palestinian autonomy accords were signed.

Mr Erakat also said Abu Abbas, who has lived most his life in exile, had “visited the West Bank and Gaza Strip several times with Israel’s coordination and for this reason we call on the US administration to respect this agreement and liberate Abu Abbas straight away.”

But an Israeli official, branding Abu Abbas a terrorist, said: “That was not a sweeping immunity, they were allowed to return to Gaza on condition that they turned their backs on terrorism and embraced the peace process. They never complied.”

A PLF statement sent to AFP denounced Abu Abbas’ arrest by “the US occupation forces” which it said “represents a dangerous step in the implementation of the American-Zionist plans against the Palestinian leadership and the PLO.”

“It reveals the goals of the American-British invasion of brotherly Iraq which mainly aims at the elimination of the Palestinian national question ... and the reorganization of the Arab region to serve imperialistic interests and reinforce the role of the Zionist entity in the region.”

In a separate statement received by AFP in Beirut the PLF said, “we consider the US-British coalition responsible for the safety of our secretary-general and we demand that he be released immediately.”

Abu Abbas was sentenced in absentia in Italy to five life terms for the attack on the Italian liner. Rome said on Wednesday it would seek his extradition, though it was unsure where to address the demand. The fugitive leader of the PLF was living in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein.

In April 1996, Abu Abbas signed up to the PLO charter which had dropped calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and from then on was allowed by Israel to visit the Palestinian territories for meetings of the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s parliament in exile.

He said at the time that the Achille Lauro hijacking was “part of the past” and a “mistake”.

US STANCE: The discovery Abu Abbas in Baghdad proves the Iraqi regime supported terrorism, a US general charged at Central Command’s war headquarters in Qatar on Wednesday.