ISLAMABAD, May 29: Pakistan on Wednesday informed the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, that no Arab country, including the Palestinian Authority, was willing to accept the four Palestinian hijackers of a PanAm plane in 1986 who have completed their life imprisonment.
The Palestinians, whose names are Mansoor Al Rashid, Mansur Al Khalil, Jamal Abdul Rahimi and Salaman Al El Turki, had entered Pakistan carrying Jordanian and Syrian passports.
The FBI, whose representatives have visited them in Adiala jail, are waiting to take them to the US to try them on charges of killing Americans.
On Wednesday when the petitions of the hijackers, seeking their release, was taken up, the two judges bench, comprising Justice Bashir A. Mujahid and Justice Jehangir Mir, inquired from the government lawyer, Sultan Mansoor about the arrangement made by the government for their deportation.
A FO official informed the court that the Palestinian Embassy in Pakistan was of no help as they were not empowered to issue passports or any other travel documents.
The official further said that none of the embassies of Arab countries (including that of Iraq and Lebanon) in Pakistan had responded positively to the FO’s letter, asking them to accept the hijackers.
Advocate Saleem Shaikh, who is representing the Palestinians, informed the court that they would like to go to Palestine for which they were struggling, or be allowed to remain in Pakistan.
The FO official, however, informed the court that they would not be allowed to stay in Pakistan and get registered with the Aliens Registered Authority as they had been involved in a criminal act.
Advocate Saleem Sheikh, however, insisted that the Review Board, headed by a supreme court judge, had recommended that the Palestinians should be registered under the Alien Registration Authority. The counsel requested the court to direct the government to produce the report of Review Board.
The court ordered that order of the Review Board should be placed on record and adjourned the hearing till June 26, 2002.
Advocate Tariq Asad, a counsel representing an NGO, pleading for the release of the Palestinian requested the court to pass an order that they be handed over to the FBI, as one of them, Mustafa Boomer, had already been taken to the US.
The court, however, passed no order and observed that it was only concerned with their release.
The lawyers dealing with the trial say that Mustafa Boomer went to the United States under a deal. His brother, they say, who lives in America had struck a deal with the FBI that his brother would testify against the remaining hijackers if he was made approver in the case.
The Palestinians are imploring Pakistani officials not to hand them over to the FBI for extradition to the United States.
Out of the five, four were awarded death sentence, and one was given life imprisonment.
Their death sentence was commuted into life imprisonment in December 1988 when Ms Benazir Bhutto declared general amnesty.