Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Fim do sequestro do paquete italiano «Achille Lauro»

A 7 de Outubro, quatro palestinianos desviaram o navio de cruzeiro italiano «Achille Lauro», após este ter saído do porto egípcio de Alexandria com 440 pessoas a bordo. O incidente do «Achille Lauro» ficou marcado pelo assassínio do sexagenário americano (e judeu) Leon Klinghoffer, morto a tiro e depois atirado ao mar na sua cadeira de rodas. O sequestro durou 44 horas e terminou no dia 10 de Outubro de 1985.
On October 7, 1985, four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt while she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said within Egypt. (continua em comentário).

1 comment:

Raquel Sabino Pereira said...

Continuação:

«On October 7, 1985, four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt while she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said within Egypt. The hijackers had been surprised by a crew member and acted prematurely. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. When refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers shot one wheelchair-bound passenger – an American named Leon Klinghoffer – because he was Jewish, and threw his body overboard. The ship headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner. The plane was intercepted by United States Navy fighters on October 10 and directed to land at Naval Air Station Sigonella, a N.A.T.O. base in Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested by the Italians after a disagreement between U.S. and Italian authorities. The other passengers on the plane (possibly including the hijackers' leader, Abu Abbas) were allowed to continue on to their destination, despite protests by the U.S. Egypt demanded an apology from the U.S. for forcing the airplane off course.
The P.L.O. was sued for its role in the death of Leon Klinghoffer. The suit was dropped when the P.L.O. paid an undisclosed sum to Klinghoffer's daughters, which was used to fund the Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation of the Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat terrorism through legal, political and educational means.
The ship continued in service; she was reflagged in 1987 when the "Lauro Line" became "StarLauro". On November 30, 1994, it caught fire off the coast of Somalia. Abandoned, the vessel sank on December 2.»