Arab-American Asks Bonn Not to Extradite Hamadi
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NEW YORK — An Arab-American leader urged West Germany today to expel Lebanese hijack suspect Mohammed Ali Hamadi after his trial there on arms smuggling charges and not to turn him over to Washington.
Dr. M. T. Mehdi, secretary general of the National Council on Islamic Affairs, in a telegram to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, said that a speedy trial and expulsion would “free America from the dilemma of its rhetoric” and “may break the vicious cycle of an eye for an eye violence.”
Mehdi, in a telephone interview, predicted more kidnapings if Hamadi is jailed or extradited to the United States, which wants to try him on charges of hijacking a TWA flight to Beirut in 1985 and murdering a Navy diver on board.
“Wisdom should prevail above the need for revenge,” he said.
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