Greek police wrongly arrest journalist in a case of mistaken identity

 A 65-year-old Lebanese man was let go by the Greek police, who they had earlier arrested in relation to the TWA 1985 hijacking case. They stated on September 24 that it was a case of mixing up the Lebanese man's name with a man wanted by the authorities in Germany for the same case. The 65-year-old had been allowed to go back to Lebanon after the particular charges were dropped against him.

The case of a mistaken identity

During a routine visa checking procedure for sightseers on the Greek island of Mykonos, his name flashed on a European police database.

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However, there was no other proof separated from the similarity in the name to punish the Lebanese man. The tourist was expected to be moved to a jail in the city of Athens so as to continue with the necessary procedures. In any case, the German police backtracked on that they would not be proceeding with the extradition as he didn't match the look of the man they were searching for.

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A Lebanese journalist

According to reports, necessary evidence alongside proof was presented that the person arrested was actually a journalist whose name coincidently happened to be similar to the name of the person actually involved in the hijacking. He was later recognized as a journalist from Lebanon by the name of Mohammed Saleh.

The TWA hijacking

The TWA flight 847 flying out of Cairo was seized just after it took off from Athens in the wake of making a shortstop in the city. The accused were later recognized as Mohammed Ali Hammadi, Hassan Izz-Al-Din and Ali Atwa. Mohammed Hamadi, a member of an extremist group, Hezbollah, was given the lifelong imprisonment punishment. However, he was granted parole in the year 2005 and despite that fact, Germany warded off endeavours for Hamadi to be moved to the USA after his activities of abducting visitors in Beirut and taking steps to kill them.

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