One of the Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Laurocruise ship and killed an American passenger in 1985 has been released after more than 23 years in jail.
Youssef Magied al-Molqui left prison in Palermo, Sicily, yesterday and was transferred to a holding center for immigrants in nearby Trapani while officials work to expel him, police in the Sicilian capital said.
Al-Molqui, a member of the four-man team that hijacked the
Achille Laurooff the Egyptian coast, had been serving a 30-year sentence, which was reduced for good behavior.
He was convicted of shooting Leon Klinghoffer - an elderly New Yorker who used a wheelchair - and ordering him to be dumped overboard.
In 1996, al-Molqui disappeared during a furlough, but he was recaptured in Spain after three weeks on the run.
Al-Molqui's lawyer, Stella Cavallo, was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying she would fight the expulsion order.
She said her client had married an Italian woman and had no recognised citizenship, and therefore no country would take him in.
Another convicted hijacker, Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif, was released last year. Italian authorities have tried to expel him but his lawyers have appealed the decision, arguing he should be allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons because he, too, has no citizenship.
AP