One of hijackers is military deserter: Turkish official

Turkey's Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said on Tuesday that one of the hijackers of the Turkish Airlines (THY) jet is military deserter Hakan Ekinci, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported.

Guler was quoted as saying that the two hijackers showed packages in their hands to THY Boeing 737-400 jet pilots and told the pilots that these packages were actually bombs.

"One of the hijackers Hakan Ekinci is a deserter. He ran away to Albania on May 6, 2006," said Guler.

Ekinci converted to Christianity in 1998 and refused to serve in Turkish Armed Forces. He sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI from Tirana where he was living in a refugee camp and requested Pope's help so that he had not returned to Turkey.

Meanwhile, Director General of the Turkish Airlines Temel Kotil said that "our passengers and crew members are in good health and there has been no damage to our jet."

According to Kotil, all passengers will be flown to Istanbul after legal procedures are completed in Italy.

"Procedures will be taken about three to four hours after which the passengers will fly to Istanbul in a three-hour-journey," said Kotil.

The Istanbul-bound THY jet with 113 people aboard, including six crew members, departed from Tirana at 16:20 (1420 GMT) and was hijacked after takeoff.

The THY Boeing 737-400 jet bounded for Istanbul was hijacked by two Turkish nationals, according to Anatolia.

The plane later was forced to land at Italy's Brindisi airport after two Italian F-16s took off and intercepted the hijacked plane.

The two Turkish hijackers said after landing that they did this to protest a planned visit of the pope Benedict XVI to Turkey next month, airline officials said.

In a speech at Regensburg University in Germany in last month, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a 14th-century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things.

Pope's speech drew widespread criticism from Muslim world, which demanded much clearer apology from the Pope despite his expression of regret over his speech.

Source: Xinhua