Hijackers Face Extradition

OSLO -- A Norwegian court Tuesday decided that three Iranians who hijacked an airliner to Norway from Azerbaijan last September could be extradited to Russia, but the three have appealed the ruling. Norway's national news agency NTB said the foreign ministry had looked into the case and been told that the Iranians would be judged by a Russian court and not expelled to Iran. They would not face the death penalty in Russia. Norway, which has no death penalty, bars extradition to countries where a criminal could be condemned to death for the offence. "The accused have committed a serious crime. It is of strong interest to Russia to implement extradition," the court said. The three men, who have appealed to the Supreme Court, were armed with grenades and a fake bomb when they hijacked an Aeroflot airliner with about 50 people on board. The men, who gave themselves up without injuring anyone after five hours of tense negotiations, said they wanted to make a protest against human rights abuses in Iran. They applied for political asylum in Norway, which was turned down.