14 Afghans to appear in UK court for hijacking

“They are due to appear this morning on charges of hijacking,” a spokeswoman for Southend Magistrates’ court in Southeast England said. Monday’s hearing was to decide whether to continue to hold the men in custody. If eventually committed for trial they could be jailed for life.

The plane was seized on a domestic flight in early February and flown via Moscow to London’s Stansted airport, where police slowly talked the hijackers into a peaceful surrender.

Of the 156 former hostages on the plane when it arrived in Britain on February seven, 73 returned to Afghanistan following assurances from the purist Islamic Taliban authorities in Kabul they would not be punished for originally saying they did not want to go back to their war-ravaged homeland.

The plane was impounded after the release of the last hostages on February ten and the four crew flew it back to Kabul on March four. Two more former hostages have since said they are prepared to go home.

Home secretary (interior Minister) Jack Straw earlier this month approved the political asylum applications of just two of the passengers and their six children. He rejected the applications of 27 and their five children and postponed judgement on a further 14 and 23 dependants.

The fact that most of those on board initially asked to stay in Britain raised speculation that the hijacking was a plot between many of the passengers and the hijackers.