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What's Happening on Search Malta?
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The unexpected side of a deadly hijacker - Rezaq’s exchanges with Maltese couple
November 24, 1985 - 23 years since Egypt Air’s tragic hijack in Malta. Charles Mizzi traces Ali Rezaq's correspondence with Lorry and Carmen Ciantar.
The maximum security prison built in 1994 in Florence, Colorado, was nicknamed ‘The Alcatraz of the Rockies’.
It houses 430 prisoners, deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control. One of the prisoners kept in solitary confinement in a 7 x 12 feet cell, behind a steel door and electronic gate, is Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq.
He is the only survivor of the Abu Nadal Palestine group that masterminded the hijack of Egypt Air Flight 648 which landed in Malta on November 24, 1985.
Omar is allowed out of his cell for only 1 hour every 24 hours. Conversing with prison guards or other prisoners is strictly forbidden.
Prisoners rarely see each other and the inmates’ only direct human interaction is with correctional officers. His cell has only 1 window, measuring 4 feet by 4. Windows are designed to confuse the prisoner about his specific location within the complex: from his cell the prisoner can see only the sky.
For good behaviour, prisoners are allowed a black and white 13” television set, which shows only educational, recreational and religious programmes.
There is no chapel in the prison and religious services are broadcast to inmates through a wired system. Communication inside and with the outside world is forbidden, except by mail which is censored by trained staff of the bureau of prison administration.
His crime has shaken the world. Ali Rezaq and 2 other hijackers forced EgyptAir pilot Hani Galal to land in Malta. One other hijacker, probably the leader of the plot, was shot dead by a sky marshall onboard the plane during the flight from Athens to Cairo.
The sky marshall was in turn killed by the remaining 2 hijackers.
Maltese authorities at first refused landing permission, even though the plane was running low on fuel and had a punctured fuselage and wounded passengers.
Click here to read the full story on www.di-ve.com.
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