The New York Times · 21 November 1985

CP-1985-031

Ship Hijacker to Be Tried as Minor

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GENOA, Italy, Nov. 20 (UPI) — One of four Palestinians accused of hijacking the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro will have to be tried separately by a juvenile court because it has been learned he is 17 years old, legal officials said today.

A six-year, seven-month sentence given the youth this week on hijacking-related weapons charges will also have to be annulled, the officials said. He will have to be retried in the court for defendants under 18. The officials identified the hijacker as Bassam al-Ashker. When he was arrested at the Sigonella air base in Sicily, investigators recorded his birth date as Feb.

9, 1966, but further investigation proved he was born Feb. 9, 1968. Mr. Ashker’s Italian defense attorney said the correct birth date had been established by a check with the birth registry office in Tripoli, Lebanon, where he was born, and with the schools he attended in Beirut.

Fifteen other people are charged with involvement in the hijacking, in which an American from New York, Leon Klinghoffer, was killed.

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