German authorities confirmed on Tuesday the release of a Hezbollah member who was serving a life sentence in jail in the country for hijacking a TWA jet in 1985.

A spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office confirmed that Mohammed Ali Hamadi, wanted by the United States for killing an American Navy diver, had been released from jail last Thursday, German news agency DPA reported.

Hamadi was among those gunmen who hijacked the TWA flight in Beirut in June 1985. He confessed to having helped conduct the 17-day hijacking to demand the release of 700 Lebanese detainees held by Israel, but denied killing US navy diver Robert Dean Stethem during the hijacking.

He was sentenced to life without parole by a German court and served 19 years of his sentence.

Hamadi's brother, Abbas Ali, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for plotting the kidnapping of two Germans in Lebanon in a bid to force the release of Hamadi. Ali was released from jail after serving his term.

The timing raised speculation that Hamadi's release was connected with those of Susanne Osthoff, who was released from Iraqi kidnappers on Sunday. Osthoff, a German archaeologist and aid worker, was kidnapped on Nov. 25 in Iraq.

However, a German Foreign Office spokesman denied any connection between the cases.

Germany had never received an extradition request from the US for Lebanese-born Hamadi, the German Justice Ministry said, adding that being sentenced to life imprisonment did not mean that he was condemned to spend the whole of his life in detention.

The court determined a minimum completion period and Hamadi had served his punishment on this basis, the ministry said.

Hamadi's release disappointed the United States, where US prosecutors had indicted Hamadi for the murder of 23-year-old Stethem.

"We are disappointed by the fact that he was released before the end of his sentence," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington, vowing that "The US will make every effort to see that this individual faces justice in the US."

Source: Xinhua