
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991                   TAG: 9102060222
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: GENOA, ITALY                                LENGTH: Short

ACHILLE LAURO ACCOMPLICES OUT OF PRISON

Two Palestinians convicted of helping the hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise ship have been released from prison early and expelled from Italy, their lawyer said Tuesday.

The two are Mohammed Issa Abbas, a cousin of fugitive Palestine Liberation Front leader Mohammed (Abul) Abbas, and Youssuf Sa'ad, said Genoa attorney Gianfranco Pagano.

A wheelchair-bound American who was a passenger on the Italian liner, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot to death by a hijacker and his body dumped into the Mediterranean during the October 1985 hijacking.

Issa Abbas, a Syrian, was convicted of using a false passport in aiding the hijackers and was sentenced to six months in prison in 1986. Sa'ad was convicted to six years in prison in the 1986 trial for having imported money used to finance the hijacking. - Associated Press

by CNB