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Iraq to Grant Political Asylum to Saudi Hijackers: FM
Iraq has decided to grant political asylum to the two Saudi security officers who hijacked a Saudi passenger plane to Iraq in October, local media reported on Monday.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahaf, who was visiting Qatar to attend meetings of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said that Iraq made the decision after study of the hijackers' requests, the reports said.
The two Saudis forced a Boeing 777 of the Saudi Arabian Airlines to land at Iraq's Saddam International Airport on October 14 and later surrendered to Iraqi security authorities.
The plane was hijacked en route from the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah to London.
The two claimed that they hijacked the plane to protest against religious oppression in Saudi Arabia and requested political asylum in Iraq, which they termed as "an anti-imperialist country."
The Saudi government has demanded handover of the two hijackers. But Iraq has rejected the Saudi demand, saying that it will never give up the two hijackers.
Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been at odds since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and Riyadh's joining the multi-national force in the 1991 Gulf War to drive the Iraqi occupation troops out of Kuwait.
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