By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 6 January 2017:
The Afriqiyah Airways Airbus which was hijacked to Malta on 23 December while on a flight from Tamenhint to Tripoli has been flown back to Tripoli after the Maltese authorities finished their investigations into the case.
One hundred and nine passengers and six crew were released within hours of the hijack and returned to Tripoli the following day. The two hijackers, Musa Shaha Soku (27) and Ahmed Saleh (28), who claimed to be Qaddafi supporters, were arrested and charged with, among other offences, hijacking an aircraft, using and threatening violence on a flight, holding people against their will, and possession of imitation weapons. They are being held in jail pending their trial. They face the maximum of a life sentence for hijacking.
Returning the plane from Malta was not without incident. Efforts to start the engines failed because of a flat battery and the aircraft had to be towed to another part of the airport to enable engineers to fix the problem.
