BRINDISI, Italy
-- Italian officials intend to prosecute a Turkish man for hijacking an
airliner, they have said, despite his appeal for political asylum on the grounds
that he is being persecuted as a Christian in Muslim Turkey.
"Even a bicycle thief can ask for political asylum. But at this moment this
doesn't mean anything," Brindisi prosecutor Giuseppe Giannuzzi said Wednesday.
He added that his office was also looking into whether the hijacker, Hakan
Ekinci, could be charged with terrorism.
The Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-400 with 113 people aboard was hijacked
Tuesday during a flight from Tirana, Albania, to Istanbul, Turkey. It landed in
the southern Italian Adriatic port city of Brindisi after Italian air force
fighter jets escorted the aircraft there.
Italian officials said Ekinci, who was unarmed, slipped into the cockpit and
handed the pilot a note, claiming that he had a message for Pope Benedict XVI
and that other hijackers aboard another, unspecified plane would blow it up
unless his message was delivered.
"He immediately said he had a message to deliver to the pope and that he was
willing to cooperate," Brindisi Prefect Mario Tafaro told The Associated Press.
The pilot, Mursel Gokalp, told reporters in Istanbul that "he convinced me
that he had three accomplices on the plane with plastic explosives strapped to
their body by frequently opening the cockpit door and pretending as if he was
coordinating with his friends."
His top wish was to get his message to the pontiff.
"He was obsessed with speaking to the pope, to say that he wanted to be
protected, that he had embraced this (Christian) religion," Giannuzzi said.
The case was marked by confusion from the start. Officials in Turkey
initially said the plane had been hijacked by a group protesting the pope's
upcoming visit to Turkey, but later retracted that version when it became clear
that Ekinci had acted alone.
On Wednesday, Turkey's justice minister claimed that Hakan Ekinci was not the
sole hijacker but had an accomplice. However, officials in Italy denied this and
Turkey later retracted the claim of a second hijacker.
| 1 | 2 |  |
