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Afghan hijackers plead against deportation

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Nine Afghan nationals who hijacked an Ariana airlines plane to Britain six years ago to escape the erstwhile Taliban regime have said that they still fear for their lives if they are sent back to Afghanistan.

British Government wants to deport them on grounds that Afghanistan is now safe for them to return, and that giving them asylum would amount to "rewarding'' terrorist actions such as hijacking.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has described as an "abuse of common sense'' a High Court ruling allowing the nine men to stay in Britain until it is safe for them to go back.

"We can't have a situation in which people who hijack a plane, we're not able to deport back to their country... .It's not an abuse of justice for us to order their deportation, it's an abuse of common sense frankly to be in a position where we can't do this,'' he said as the Government planned to appeal against the ruling.

But in a statement, the hijackers said they were at risk of torture and death if they were deported.

They said an asylum adjudicator appeal panel had upheld their case in 2004. The nine — Ali and Mohammed Safi , Abdul Shohab, Taimur Shah, Nazamuddin Mohammidy, Abdul Ghayur, Mohammed Kazin, Mohammed Showaib and Reshad Ahmadi - were jailed in 2001 after they forced a domestic Ariana flight with 78 passengers on board to fly to Stanstead airport in Essex.

But their convictions were quashed two years later and since then they have been trying to seek asylum in Britain.

In their statement, they denied that they wanted to "sponge off'' the state and said they wanted to work and contribute to British society. They also apologised for the hijacking but said: "But we did it because we were desperate and we did not believe we could all get away safely in any other way."

Human rights groups have attacked the Government for wanting to deport the hijackers.

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