Visitors
since
January 07, 2007
The U.S. State Department cleared diplomatic channels to permit easy access to witnesses of the hijacking, and the U.S. Defense Department paid the fees of a top German lawyer to represent the family of Robert Stethem. A U.S. government representative monitored the trial each day from the often crowded press gallery.
Frankfurt prosecutors formally notified all those who had been held on the plane, and the Stethem family, of their legal right to take part in the case as co-prosecutors, and 16 decided to do so. More than 100 witnesses testified at the trial
To the hostages, he seemed merciless and proud of Stethem's death. A curious blend of traits struck Uli Derickson, Hammadei's unwilling interpreter during the first days of the hijacking. For her, Hammadei's ruthlessness was evident in the beatings. Yet she said the hijackers prayed, taking turns holding the pistol while the other worshipped. Another time, he asked her to sing the German version of "Pattycake, Pattycake" to him and discussed the plight of the Lebanese.
Whether it was his sense of humor or delusions of grandeur, she was too scared to notice when he asked how much the Boeing 727 was worth. When she replied $5 million to $6 million, he remarked, "Oh, now I'm a rich man."
Hammadei testified that just prior to the hijacking, he returned to Lebanon from Germany after giving up his two-year bid for asylum in Germany. Homesick and out of sorts, he said he swallowed pills to kill himself in 1983 and cut his wrists in 1984. He left an ex-girlfriend and a baby daughter behind in Saarland, where in 1983 he was convicted of theft. Witnesses have drawn conflicting pictures of Hammadei, a trim 5'3" Muslim Shiite who described America as "the Satan of the world."
To the mother of his former girlfriend, he seemed a kindly young man who cooked dinner for her and shared his meager welfare check. She referred to him as "our Mohammed."
Hammadei apologized for his hijacking behavior and said he no longer believes violence was the only answer. As for Stethem's death, he told the court: "I argued against it and tried to prevent it, but he (the other hijacker, identified as Hassan Izz-al-din) was the boss."
"It doesn't seem to me that you're the type who allows himself to fall blindly into situations or would blindly do what someone else tells him," Judge Heiner Mecklenburger told the suspect. "We're slowly getting to know you, Mr. Hammadei."
Hammadei told the court he was raised to hate Americans because they supported Israel and were the source of everything evil that has happened to his country.
"They preach ‘hate Americans’ in the mosques every day," Hammadei testified. At another point, he inquired why such a fuss was being made over the death of one American when so many Lebanese were being killed every day.
Hammadei went on to say, "My orders stressed no one was to be killed. . . . No blood was to be spilled. . . . I opposed the killing, but I was not in command of the plane. The pistol was not in my hand. What I did I did to defend my country. An act of defense, even though violent, should not be likened to a terrorist act."
"If this act which I committed is against the law, then it is a result of illegal conduct on the part of Israel," Hammadei told the court. He said earlier that he chose an American airliner because the United States is Israel's most influential ally.
On the 11th day of his trial, Hammadei admitted that he helped hijack a TWA jetliner, but denied any part in killing the U.S. Navy diver. In his surprise confession, the young Lebanese Shiite Muslim denied that he was a terrorist and said he now regrets the 17-day hijacking and would never commit such a crime again if he had the chance.
He testified, however, that seizing the Boeing 727 on its flight from Athens, Greece, to Rome seemed at the time the only means of obtaining the release of 766 Lebanese and Palestinians who, he said, were being tortured in secret prisons in Israel. He was quoted as saying with regard to the hijacking, "The seizure of 'a few people' led Israel to release hundreds of 'innocent Lebanese.'" Israel freed the prisoners in stages after the hijacking ended.
"I took part in the hijacking, but I thank Allah that I never shot anyone," the defendant said. "It was my comrade, who was the head of our commando, who had the pistol in his hands. I didn't use it."
Mr. Stethem sat hour after hour taking notes on the horror of his son's slaying. His wife, Patricia, sat silently beside him. The two of them usually maintained a stony demeanor, but there were times when Mrs. Stethem buried her head in her hands in anguish as the gory details of her son's beatings were described by his fellow passengers. Mrs. Stethem unexpectedly walked out of the courtroom in April during testimony about details of her son's murder.
Hammadei's parents testified at his trial, with his father saying the confessed hijacker was a minor (20) at the time of the incident and his mother saying he was innocent. Hammadei's mother, Fatima, testified, "I know that my son is innocent. I know that he's very young and that we live under terrible conditions" in Beirut.
The slain diver's parents, Richard and Patricia Stethem of Waldorf, Md., attended the trial as co-plaintiffs, representing themselves, their three surviving children and six other U.S. victims of the hijacking. They sat across from Hammadei during all 64 sessions.
West German lawyer, Rainer Hamm, hired by the U.S. government to represent the victims and their families, said Captain John Testrake, Purser Uli Derickson and Flight Engineer Benjamin Zimmermann had joined in prosecuting Hammadei.
The Stethem's want "just punishment" for the guilty rather than "blind revenge," Hamm, told the court. "This cannot be any help for their son or brother, but they hope that it will spare other families the same suffering," Hamm said.
A special $6.7 million dollar courtroom was built in Germany specifically for Hammadei's trial deep inside Preungesheim Prison in an effort to ensure that no one attempted to free Hammadei. The court will never be used again. Hammadei has resided in the top-security prison for more than a year.
Six large panes of bulletproof glass separated the official participants from a gallery of 100 spectators and journalists. Guards did two body searches on each journalist and spectator who entered the visitors' gallery. Outside the courtroom security remained tight with two dozen policemen near the entrance - three carrying machine guns.
Hammadei sat behind two walls of bulletproof glass, while witnesses sat at a table in the center of the courtroom testifying to the horrors of the 1985 hijacking. Hammadei appeared relaxed and even scornful of the proceedings, yawning repeatedly and fingering a string of dark-colored worry beads.
On January 13, 1987, Mohammed Ali Hammadei, one of the two hijackers of TWA Flight 847, was arrested at the Frankfurt International Airport after customs officials discovered in his luggage three bottles of explosive liquid disguised as wine.
Hammadei, whose trial in Frankfurt, West Germany began on July 5, 1988, was tried on two counts of smuggling explosives, air piracy and murdering the American hostage, Robert Dean Stethem. The trial was expected to last into the next year.
