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Hijacker Of Yemeni Plane Jailed For 15 Years
SANAA, Feb 3 (News Agencies) - A Yemeni plane hijacker was sentenced to 15 years in prison Saturday for trying to divert a domestic flight to Baghdad with the U.S. ambassador to Yemen on board.
A Sanaa court ordered Jaber Ali Sattar to pay compensation to the carrier Yemenia for the January 23rd hijacking which wound up in Djibouti, although the amount was not specified.
He must also pay the medical expenses of a crewmember injured in the hijacking of the Sanaa-Taiz flight.
"It's an unjust sentence but I have to accept it because I was expecting the death penalty," Sattar told the judge, Nejib al-Kaderi, after the verdict was read out.
The prosecution, which had asked for the death penalty, said it would appeal against the sentence against Sattar, who was found guilty of "hijacking, endangering the lives of others, illegal carrying of arms, and forging documents."
Sattar had ordered that the plane with 91 passengers on board, including U.S. ambassador Barbara Bodine, be flown to Baghdad, warning that he had rigged the aircraft with explosives and would blow it up.
The 30-year-old unemployed Yemeni said during the trial he had no political motives for hijacking the Boeing 727 and that he was only seeking fame. It was the desperate act of a man who had just lost his livelihood in Saudi Arabia, he said.
Five staff members of the U.S. embassy were in court for the verdict in the less than weeklong trial, but not Sattar's court-appointed lawyer.
The Yemeni pilot convinced Sattar that the plane needed to refuel in Djibouti, and the crew overpowered the hijacker once the airliner landed and all the passengers fled the plane.
The U.S. State Department was full of praise for the crew.
"The crew acted very, very well, very professionally and competently," said spokesman Richard Boucher. "The way they handled the situation was the most important factor in its peaceful resolution."
Sattar's lawyer told the court that the hijacker, who was extradited from Djibouti, had no idea Bodine was on board, and that a shot he fired during the incident, wounding the crewmember, went off by accident.
The investigation focused on how Sattar managed to board the plane armed with a pen-pistol.
Six Yemeni security officials at Sanaa airport were detained as part of the investigations into the hijacking, Yemeni police said, while two Sanaa municipal workers have also been questioned.
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