Court Upholds 15-Year Jail Term For Yemeni Hijacker
SANAA, Feb 17 (News Agencies) - An appeals court on Saturday upheld a 15-year prison term for a Yemeni hijacker who tried to divert to Baghdad a plane with the U.S. ambassador on board, ruling out prosecution calls for the death penalty.
It also confirmed a lower court order for Jaber Sattar, an unemployed 30-year-old, to pay $72,000 in damages and interest to Yemenia and the medical expenses of a crew member wounded during the aborted hijacking.
The January 23rd hijacking of the Yemenia flight from Sanaa to Taiz in central Yemen wound up in Djibouti, after the pilot convinced Sattar that the plane needed to refuel.
Reacting to the initial February 3rd verdict, which was appealed by the prosecution, Sattar said: "It's an unjust sentence but I have to accept it because I was expecting the death penalty."
Sattar was found guilty of "hijacking, endangering the lives of others, illegal carrying of arms and forging documents."
He had ordered that the plane with 91 passengers on board, including U.S. ambassador Barbara Bodine, be flown to Baghdad, warning he had rigged the aircraft with explosives and would blow it up.
Sattar 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.
The crew overpowered the hijacker once the airliner landed in Djibouti, and all the passengers escaped unhurt.
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.
