Cause of 'Achille Lauro' hijacker's death questioned

IRAQ: The widow of Abu Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, questioned yesterday whether he…

IRAQ: The widow of Abu Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, questioned yesterday whether he died of natural causes in US custody in Iraq, as Washington said.

Reem al-Nimr told reporters she held the United States, whose forces caught Abbas in Iraq last April, responsible.

"He was a prisoner-of-war. He was detained by the American forces and so he was their responsibility," she said.

Her comments echoed earlier accusations by members of Abbas's Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), but unlike them she did not call his death an assassination.

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"We could ask a big question about his death, whether it was a natural death, or they intended to poison him or stop his medication so gradually his health deteriorated. It's a legitimate question since he was in their hands," she said.

A US official in Baghdad said Abbas died of a heart attack on Tuesday.

Reem al-Nimr said she was not officially told how her husband was treated or where he was held, but knew the Red Cross visited him.

"He was allowed to write letters, and his letters were very brief and they were controlled by the American army, so anything that criticised them, I don't think they would let pass."

She said Abbas, who was born in Haifa and spent much of his life in Syria, should be buried "in his country, Palestine".

The Palestinian Authority was working to get Israeli and US permission to return his body there, she added, but if it was not granted he would probably be buried in Syria.

Abbas planned the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in which a wheel-chair-bound American Jew, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, was killed and thrown overboard.

Abbas spent most of the past 17 years in Iraq, eluding capture. He later renounced violence and was allowed to visit Palestinian-run territories four years ago.

His wife said she last received a letter from him in January.