A New Twist Has Emerged In Last Year’s Unusual Plane Hijack
Malta’s peaceful Christmas period was jolted last year when two Libyan men hijacked a passenger plane with what turned out to be fake guns and bombs and diverted it to Luqa.
The unusual circumstances surrounding the hijack, such as the complete lack of fear exhibited by the hostages, fanned the flames of conspiracy theories.
A year later, the two hijackers – Ali Ahmed Lano Saleh and Moussa Shaha Ali Sako – are still in prison awaiting their sentence for charges of committing terrorism and hijacking an aircraft, both of which carry life sentences.
However, the sister of one of the hijackers – Ali Ahmed Lano Saleh – has now painted a far more sympathetic picture of her brother, saying his only intention was to flee a life of racial prosecution in Libya.
Indeed, she said his original plan was to be treated for stomach pain in a Tripoli hospital, while his legal aid lawyer Patrick Valentino said the hijack had all been planned by Moussa and that Lano just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Lano still can’t comprehend that what he did carries a heavy prison term,” Valentino told Lovin Malta. “He said he only met Moussa on the plane and helped him out, and this version of events has been corroborated by both Moussa and by the passengers on the plane. A hijack is a hijack, but because of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to get life imprisonment or to be found guilty of terrorism.”
The south-western city of Sabha has become a hotspot for slave traders
Lano and her sister are from the Toubou ethnic minority group, which inhabit the south of Libya as well as the north of Chad, Sudan and Niger. They live in the city of Sabha, a south-western Libyan desert town which has recently been in the news as a hotspot for slave auctions of sub-Saharan African migrants.
In 2015, a massive war broke out in Sabha District between the Toubou and the Awlad Suleiman tribe – which resulted in the latter tribe taking control of the city of Sabha.
“We’re a small ethnic group, not Arabic in origin, and Libyans with Arabic origins don’t consider us Libyans,” she said. “They always try to kill us and destroy our villages through Arab militia supported by the central government. I am a doctor, but in 2015 I was attacked while working at a medical centre in Sabha and suffered injuries to my face and legs. The scars of my wounds are still visible on my face, and since then I could no longer work in that hospital. I have no work, because if I work again they will try to hurt me.”
She said the dark skin colour of Toubou means slave traders sometimes confuse them with sub-Saharn African migrants, recounting a story of how a Toubou woman and her daughter were travelling by taxi to Tripoli when they were kidnapped by Arab militia, taken to a slave camp, sold for 2000 dinar and only released when a relative agreed to repay the slave fee.
“Toubou women don’t walk alone in the city. There is always another African man by their side to protect them from being kidnapped and from being taken to secret camps,” she said.
Maltese troops survey the hijacked plane in Luqa. Photo: Reuters
As for Toubou men, going outside is extremely risky – they always leave the house armed and risk getting shot at by Arab militia from moving cars.
It was in this environment that Ali Ahmed Lano Saleh, 29, lived his everyday life until 23rd December last year, when he decided to catch a plane to Tripoli. According to his sister, Lano was suffering from stomach pain and wanted to be treated at a hospital in Tripoli – too scared to visit the one in Sabha.
The exact circumstances of the events leading up to the hijack remain unclear. Lano and the other hijacker Moussa Shaha Ali Sako, also from the Toubou tribe, had certainly known each other but both hijackers have said that it was all masterminded by Moussa while Lano agreed to go along with it on the spot.
Libya’s Channel TV Station reported it had spoken by phone with Moussa, who described himself as the leader of a new political party sympathetic to former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. A document found on the Afriqiyah Airways plane described Moussa as the leader of a new political group called Al-Fateh Al-Jadeed (The New Al-Fateh), a throwback to the 1969 September coup which saw Gaddafi rise to power in Libya.
However, Lano’s sister had harsh words for the deposed dictator.
“Gaddafi is responsible for all our suffering,” she said. “The Toubou never supported Gaddafi and we were the first tribe from the south to take a stand against him during the revolution.”
The hijackers were escorted to court by armed policemen
From the court testimony of the plane’s passengers and crew, it emerged that the hijack itself was so peaceful that many passengers didn’t even know they had just been hijacked. The pilot said he had only been informed of the hijack when a stewardess passed him on a note – written by Moussa – telling him to divert the flight to Rome out of threat of blowing up the plane. It was the pilot himself who suggested to the hijackers that the plane be diverted to Malta instead as it did not have enough fuel to travel all the way to Rome, a suggestion the hijackers welcomed.
The cabin crew did not inform the passengers of the hijack, but instead told them that they were taking a detour from Tripoli because of bad weather. Only later on did they tell them that they were landing in Malta.
One of the air hostesses testified that she had chatted and joked with one of the hijackers in an attempt to calm him down and found him “rather stupid”. At one point, he even suggested taking a selfie together.
The court case, which is currently at compilation of evidence stage, will continue next month and Valentino confirmed he plans to submit a plea bargain to the Attorney General on his client’s behalf.
What do you make of the hijackers’ story? Let us know in the comments section
READ NEXT: How It Happened: The Malta Hijack That Ended With All Hostages Safely Released
