Word: hamadei
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Dates: during 1987-1987
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...outrages in Beirut followed what seemed a rare break in the long and painful campaign against international terrorism. That was the chance arrest in West Germany of Mohammed Ali Hamadei, 22, one of four alleged ringleaders in the TWA hijacking and suspects in the killing of Navy Diver Robert Stethem. Hamadei is thought to be one of the two gunmen who were actually aboard TWA Flight 847 when it was commandeered and who savagely beat and then shot the American sailor. Hamadei was detained at Frankfurt's international airport after officials discovered he was carrying a false passport and bottles...
West German elation at Hamadei's arrest quickly dissolved when Cordes, then Schmidt, was kidnaped. It was immediately assumed that the abductors planned to use the West German hostages as bargaining chips for Hamadei's release. The hostage takings were a rude awakening for West Germans. For years Bonn has cultivated good relations throughout the Muslim world. Partly as a result, the three-year spree of kidnapings in Lebanon, until now aimed mostly at the U.S. and France, has had little impact on Germans living in Beirut, who continued to operate more or less normally...
...West Germans' captors lost no time making their demands known. Within 24 hours of Cordes' disappearance, officials in Bonn received word that his kidnapers were indeed demanding a hostage-for-prisoner swap. Suspicion immediately centered on the radical Shi'ite organization Hizballah (Party of God), to which Hamadei is thought to be linked. A West German radio station, quoting an unnamed Christian source in Beirut, said the abductions were planned by Hamadei's brother Abdul, who is thought to be a Hizballah security officer...
...demand for Hamadei could hit a legal snag. Under terms of a 1978 U.S.-West German extradition treaty, Bonn will not extradite suspects who would face the death penalty in an American court for the crime involved. Hamadei could be executed if he is convicted in the U.S. At week's end American and West German diplomats in Bonn were discussing other possible means of bringing Hamadei to the U.S. besides formal extradition. Said a State Department official: "It's just a question of working out procedures." A Justice Department spokesman refused to say whether the U.S. would waive...
...Hamadei was the second suspected terrorist to be arrested in Europe last week. In Italy, police at Milan airport seized another Lebanese man, Bachir Khodr, 26, who arrived from Beirut. Inspection of picture frames and chocolate Easter eggs in Khodr's luggage found them to be filled with 24 lbs. of plastic explosives. A portable radio that he carried contained 36 detonators. Authorities in Italy believe Khodr may be a member of a pro-Iranian terrorist group called Hizballah and could possibly have ties to Hamadei. Italian Interior Minister Oscar Scalfaro asserted that the "arrest in Frankfurt is linked with...