Twelve Afghan men stood trial on Thursday in London on charges of hijacking a passenger jet and threatening to blow it up, an incident which sparked a three-day armed stand-off.
The hijackers were armed with guns and grenades and warned they would kill passengers during the dramatic siege at Stansted Airport, north of London, in February last year, prosecutor Bruce Houlder told the court.
He said hijackers told police after surrendering they sought political asylum and had been forced to take the plane to escape Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime.
But they were no ordinary asylum seekers who would normally give themselves up to authorities as soon as they made it into Britain, he added.
In this case, threats were made to blow up the Ariana Boeing aircraft after it landed at Stansted unless certain "demands" were met.
The jet was hijacked on a domestic flight from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to a northern province, and flown via Moscow to Stansted.
Houlder said the cabin crew escaped during the stand-off at Stansted.
Two of the hijackers later negotiated the release of the passengers before the accused gave themselves up.
All 12 have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The plane was carrying 14 crew and 173 passengers, of whom 21 were children -- some of them related to the Afghans now on trial.
Houlder said the hijackers were from a group called Young Intellectuals of Afghanistan which aimed to restore democracy to the country -- "a distant and forlorn hope for those there at the moment."
They also wanted to improve conditions for women who were "under the yoke."
But Houlder warned that, although the motives were worthy -- "it would take a cold heart to remain unmoved by the plight of these defendants" -- the jury should keep their feet on the ground.
"The fact that their lives have become a misery in their country and they suffered deprivation, their homes and businesses were either bombed or burgled and they may have been liable to death, does not provide justification for the crimes committed."
Afghanistan was a place where people continue to live and from where there was a stream of refugees, he added.
"But only these accused chose to solve their problem in this way -- by the false imprisonment of over 150 people." -- LONDON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
