Hijacker on the run from Swiss prison

swissinfo September 9, 2002 8:22 PM




Hussein Hariri did not return to the Plaine de l'Orbe jail in Bochuz in canton Vaud (Keystone)
Swiss police are on high alert after a hijacker, who was serving a life sentence, failed to return to his cell from weekend leave.

Police said Hussein Hariri did not show up at Plaine de l’Orbe jail in Bochuz in canton Vaud on Sunday night.






The 36-year-old Lebanese was convicted in 1989 for killing a passenger and seriously wounding a flight attendant during the hijacking of an Air Afrique flight to Geneva in 1987.

Prison authorities said Hariri had been granted improved detention conditions in preparation for his release on parole in 2004. They said he had always obeyed regulations in the past.

However, this is not the first time Hariri has gone on the run. In 1992, he and four other inmates overpowered prison guards, seized a truck and drove it through a fence around the prison. He was recaptured a week later.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=1326063

On weekend leave???

How could any government even think about parole fro a person like this?

A darn good question Jim. Plus he gets to leave prison on the weekends?