Mohammed Ali Hammadi ( ar, محمد علي حمادي), also known as Mohammed Ali Hamadi (born 13 June 1964, in Lebanon) is one of the list of FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists most notable for being the lead hijacker in the

TWA Flight 847 Trans World Airlines Flight 847 was a flight from Cairo to San Diego with en route stops in Athens, Rome, Boston, and Los Angeles. On the morning of June 14, 1985, Flight 847 was hijacked shortly after take off from Athens. The hijackers demand ...

hijacking. A Lebanese citizen and alleged member of Hezbollah, he was convicted in a West German court of law of air piracy, murder, and possession of explosives for his part in the 14 June 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. Under indictment by

US law enforcement Law enforcement in the United States is one of three major components of the criminal justice system of the United States, along with courts and corrections. Although each component operates semi-independently, the three collectively form a cha ...

for crimes related to the same hijacking, during which one passenger,

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

Seabee diver

Robert Stethem Robert Dean Stethem (November 17, 1961 – June 15, 1985) was a United States Navy Seabee (US Navy), Seabee diver who was murdered by Hezbollah terrorists during the aircraft hijacking, hijacking of the commercial airliner he was aboard, TWA ...

, was extensively tortured prior to being murdered, Hammadi was sentenced to life imprisonment by the West German court. He was imprisoned in 1987 in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

for 19 years, but was paroled in 2005. He is considered a fugitive by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

, which listed him as one of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists in 2006. He is believed to reside in Lebanon. There has been speculation that his parole was granted as part of a covert prisoner swap, in exchange for the release of Susanne Osthoff. Taken hostage in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

a month prior, Osthoff was released the week of Hammadi's parole.

Imprisoned in West Germany

Two years after the TWA Flight 847 attack, Hammadi was arrested in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, in 1987 while attempting to smuggle liquid explosives. The United States immediately requested his extradition but Hezbullah immediately abducted two West Germans in Beirut, and threatened to kill them if Hamadei were extradited. Then it was decided to try Hamadei in West Germany. In addition to the charges in West Germany of illegal importation of explosives, he was charged with the 1985 hijacking and hostage taking; tried and convicted of Stethem's 1985 murder, he was sentenced to life in prison.Will Germany Release an American-Killer?
27 January 2004 The first opportunity for parole to be granted on a life sentence in Germany is ordinarily after 15 years. However, Hammadi's life sentence included a provision that due to an exceptional grave degree of guilt the first parole review was to be later. The ''Landgericht'' (

regional court In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

) Kleve decided on 30 November 2005, to grant Hammadi's application for parole, after his having served 19 years of his term. The US government has sought his extradition from

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

Fugitive in Lebanon

His indicted accomplices in the TWA Flight 847 attack, Hassan Izz-Al-Din and

Ali Atwa Ali Atwa ( ar, علي عطوة; – October 2021) was a Lebanon, Lebanese national and member of the Islamism, Islamist organization Hezbollah. Atwa was also known as ''Ammar Mansour Bouslim'' and ''Hassan Rostom Salim''. Ali was wanted by the ...

continue to elude arrest and currently remain at large, having been placed among the original 22 fugitives on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list on 10 October 2001, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Another accomplice, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed on 12 February 2008 in a car-bombing attack in Damascus, Syria. Those responsible for this attack remain unknown as of 13 February 2008. On 14 February 2006, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

federal government, through the ambassador to Lebanon, had formally asked the Lebanese government to extradite Mohammed Ali Hammadi for the murder of Robert Stethem during the 1985 hijacking.US 'seeks justice' for hijacker
''BBC News'' On 24 February 2006, he joined his accomplices on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, under the name Mohammed Ali Hamadei.
''FBI national Press Release'', 24 February 2006 Several news outletsHezbollah: Top militant wanted by U.S. slain
''MSNBC'' 13 February 2008 reported the announcement by Hezbollah of the death of Imad Mugniyah by explosion in Syria on 13 February 2008. The remaining three fugitives from TWA Flight 847 remain on the list, and at large. On 12 September 2006, a "Bush administration official" indicated that Hammadi had rejoined Hezbollah upon his release from German prison. On 12 February 2007, the FBI announced a new $5 million reward for information leading to the recapture of Hammadi.

Reported death

According to

Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (dpa) is a German news agency founded in 1949. Based in Hamburg, it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agencies. News is ava ...

, unconfirmed

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

i intelligence sources reported that Hammadi was killed in a CIA drone strike inside Pakistan in June 2010. However, Hammadi's death was never confirmed, and he remains on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list and the State Department's Rewards for Justice list.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammadi, Mohammed Ali 1964 births Hezbollah hijackers People paroled from life sentence Lebanese Islamists Lebanese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Possibly living people