Hijacker of Turkish Plane Charged in Athens

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 30, 2003

Hijacker of Turkish Plane Charged in Athens

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A hijacker of a Turkish Airlines plane on a domestic flight from Istanbul to Ankara who forced the Airbus 310 to land at Athens' international airport on Friday night was arraigned in Athens on Saturday.

Greek authorities said Turkish hijacker Ozgur Gencaslan was ledbefore a prosecutor and was formally charged with illegally takingpossession of an airplane, violating the regulations of flight endangering the lives of people and illegal weapons possession.

The hijacker is expected to respond to the charges on Monday.

Gencaslan was arrested in the early hours Saturday and all the passengers and crew on board were freed following the interventionof the Greek police.

The negotiations took place between the Turkish pilot and Greekpolice at the control tower. After the hijacker, who spoke only Turkish, allowed all the passengers and crew to disembark shortly after 3 am local time, a Turkish translator entered the cockpit following which Greek police immediately stormed the plane and managed to handcuff the hijacker who is said to be mentally disturbed.

The hijacker, identified as Ozgur Gencaslan, 20, will be brought before the public prosecutor.

Flight TK 160 which took off from Istanbul airport at 10 pm wascarrying 194 passengers and nine crews.

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou who arrived at Athens'Eleftherios Venizelos international airport thanked the Greek authorities, police, public order ministry, transport ministry andthe authorities at the airport for their contribution in the safe release of the passengers, stressing that with the coordination ofthe Greek prime minister the release of the passengers had a happyend.

Government spokesman Christos Protopapas said Saturday that theincident "showed the high effectiveness of the state and the security authorities. Greece is one of the safest countries in theworld, it is in a position to confront all dangers, especially in light of the Olympic Games of 2004".

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