| From: [email protected] (JULIAN M. ISHERWOOD)
Newsgroups: clari.news.terrorism,clari.news.europe,clari.news.law.prison,
clari.news.disaster,clari.news.gov.international
Subject: Police hunt for escaped Palestinian
Date: 10 May 91 16:30:25 GMT
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (UPI) -- Police throughout Scandinavia were
hunting Friday for a convicted Palestinian terrorist who escaped from
Sweden's most secure prison with a Romanian man serving an eight-year
sentence for trying to kill two policemen.
Martin Imandi, 37, a Palestinian sentenced to life imprisonment in
1989 for three bomb attacks against Jewish and American targets in
Denmark and Holland, escaped from the top security Kumla Prison Thursday
with Ioan Ursut, 33.
"This was a highly professional escape which appears to have been
minutely planned both from inside and outside the prison," said a
prison spokesman, adding that the men climbed onto a roof, jumped a
fence and scaled a 23-foot wall surrounding the prison using knotted
sheets.
The spokesman said they used a sawed-off shotgun provided by outside
accomplices, commandeered a car and sped away. The car was found
abandoned.
Police in Sweden, Denmark and Norway were on special alert at all
border areas for the two, both characterized by Swedish police as
"dangerous and desperate."
But due to a communications lapse in Stockholm, Norwegian and Danish
police were not informed of the escape until Friday, by which time the
two men could have used numerous ferry links to Denmark and land borders
with Norway.
Imandi's life sentence was for the 1985 twin bombing of the Northwst
Orient airline office in Copenhagen that killed one person and of the
Jewish synagogue there. He was also convicted of another bombing in
Amsterdam two months later.
Sweden's Minister for Justice Laila Freivalds announced an official
inquiry into how Imandi and Ursut could have escaped without being
detected by the guards, television monitors and safety devices at Kumla
prison.
In an associated event, a Swedish court confirmed that American court
officials are to question one of Imandi's co-defendants about the
December 1988 destruction of Pan-Am Airways Flight 1088 over Scotland
that killed 270 people aboard the plane and on the ground in the town of
Lockerbie.
The questioning of Mohammed Al Moghrabi, who Swedish police
previously said was a senior member of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine General Command and who was convicted with
Imandi in 1989, is to take place June 12.
The Americans want to question him in relation to more than 100
compensation claims against Pan-Am for the Lockerbie bombing.
The PFLP-GC is generally thought to have been behind the Lockerbie
bombing, although no links have been unearthed to point to participation
of the Swedish cell. Another member of the Swedish group, Mohammed Abo
Talb, has already been interrogated in the Lockerbie case.
Al Moghrabi admitted during his trial in Sweden that he built the
bombs that exploded in Copenhagen but refused to make any statements
involving other explosions.
|
| From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe,
clari.news.law.prison,clari.news.terrorism
Subject: Police recapture escaped Palestinian bomber
Date: 14 May 91 20:32:40 GMT
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (UPI) -- Swedish police Tuesday recaptured a
convicted Palestinian bomber and his Romanian companion, four days after
the two escaped from Sweden's most secure prison, a police spokesman
said.
"At a roadblock, a white vehicle refused to stop. We had an idea it
was them and gave chase," the police spokesman said, adding the
roadblock had been part of a routine traffic check rather than one set
up to catch the two men.
After losing control of their car during the chase, the two escapees
abandoned the vehicle and ran into an industrial area to hide, but were
later caught.
"They were very tired and did not want to talk," the police
spokesman said.
Martin Imandi, 37, a Palestinian sentenced to life imprisonment in
1989 for three bomb attacks against Jewish and American targets in
Denmark and Holland, and Ioan Ursut, 33, serving an eight-year sentence
for the attempted murder of two policemen, escaped from the top security
Kumla Prison May 10.
The two men used knotted sheets to climb over a 20-foot wall
surrounding the prison, and with a sawed-off shotgun provided by helpers
outside commandeered a car and sped away.
Police in Sweden, Denmark and Norway were placed on special alert at
all border crossing points in order to try to find the two, both of whom
were characterized by Swedish police as "dangerous and desperate."
Imandi's life sentence came after his conviction in a case involving
the 1985 twin bombing of the North West Orient airline office in
Copenhagen in which one person died and in the Jewish synagogue in the
Danish capital. He was also convicted of another bomb attack in
Amsterdam two months later.
An official inquiry has been set up to determine how Imandi and Ursut
could have climbed onto a roof, jumped a fence and scaled the 20-foot
wall without having been detected by the battery of guards, television
monitors and safety devices at Kumla prison.
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