Turkey to ask for return of hijacker: minister

Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said on Wednesday that Turkey would ask for the return of Hasan Ekinci who hijacked Turkish Airlines (THY) jet to Italy on Tuesday.

Cicek told reporters that they would demand return of the hijacker after completion of related procedures by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice.

Cicek stressed that the procedures in Italy won't affect the process in Turkey regarding their demand for the return of Ekinci.

He noted that the demand of Ekinci for political asylum should be met with scepticism.

The THY jet with 105 passengers on board, which was hijacked to Italy while flying from Albania's Tirana to Istanbul on Tuesday, arrived at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Wednesday.

The Boeing 737-400 jet landed at the airport at 8:40 a.m. (0540 GMT) with 111 people aboard, including 105 passengers and six crew members.

The Istanbul-bound THY jet with 113 people aboard departed from Tirana and was hijacked after takeoff.

Turkey's Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said on Tuesday that two hijackers showed packages in their hands to the THY jet pilots and told the pilots that these packages were actually bombs.

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

Guler said that hijacker Hakan Ekinci is a military deserter. He ran away to Albania on May 6, 2006.

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.

Hakan Ekinci has decided to stay in Brindisi, Italy.

Source: Xinhua