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Three sentenced to life for Indian Airlines hijack
05 Feb 2008 14:08:12 GMT
 Source: Reuters
CHANDIGARH, India, Feb 5 (Reuters) - An Indian court jailed three men for life on Tuesday for their role in the eight-day hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999.

Abdul Latif and Dalip Bhujail, both Indian nationals, and Yusuf Nepali, from Nepal, were convicted of criminal conspiracy and murder following an eight-year trial, said B.S. Sodhi, their lawyer.

The court in Patiala in Punjab state said the men, who are known by several aliases, supplied weapons and fake passports to the hijackers.

Five armed men hijacked the Airbus A-300 carrying 189 passengers and crew between Kathmandu and New Delhi on Christmas Eve in 1999. The plane touched down in western India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates before landing in Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The hijackers killed one passenger early in the week-long stand-off, but the remaining passengers and crew walked free after India released three Kashmir separatist militants from jail.

India said the hijackers were all Pakistani and accused Pakistan's government of complicity in the hijacking, charges it denied. The two neighbours have twice gone to war over who should rule the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The hijackers fled and have never been caught.

British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of the freed militants, was later convicted and sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for his role in the murder in 2002 of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

The three men convicted on Tuesday will appeal against the judgement, their lawyer said. (Reporting by Geetinder Garewal; Editing by Jonathan Allen)


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Last updated:Tue Feb 5 14:10:20 2008