Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair

Genua, 3rd October 1985. Together with over 500 other passengers Margot and Pierre Bergeron, a married couple from France, the Serafinis, an Italian family, Anne Higgins, an Englishwoman, Gitta and Helmut Holzer from Germany and an American couple called Marilyn and Leon Klinghoffer board the 'Achille Lauro'. The mood is cheerful and relaxed, everyone is looking forward to twelve days of sun, sea and peace. No one suspects that there are four Palestinian terrorists among the passengers: Al Assadi, Fatayer, Al Ashker and Molqi, their leader. The ship puts to sea in perfect weather. Three marvellous days follow. Everyone appears to be happy and contented. But in the case of some of the passengers appearances are deceiving. Marilyn Klinghoffer, for example, only pretends to her crippled husband that she is well and happy; in reality she is seriously ill with cancer and knows that this will be her last voyage. She does not want to upset her husband, however. A crisis is brewing between the Bergerons: Pierre is a cold-hearted cynic who finds fault with everything and everybody, particularly his wife. Divorce is in the air. Only Gitta and Helmut Holzer, the two young Germans, who have won the trip in a competition, are really enjoying themselves; it is their first voyage and they are as happy as larks. Gitta is in an advanced stage of pregnancy. While the passengers are enjoying themselves on board, the four terrorists have locked themselves into their cabin. Only Molqi knows of the plan to seize the ship, the other three believe they are on their way to take part in a suicide mission in Israel. On 7th October about l00 passengers leave the ship in Port Said to take part in an expedition to the pyramids. Among them is Margot Bergeron, who has left her husband on board in a rage, and Luciano and Carla Serafini, who have left their two children on board in the care of their grandmother. The Klinghoffers and the Holzers have changed their minds and decided to stay on board after all. Meanwhile Molqi has received his last orders concerning the seizure of the ship by means of a telephone message from Khaled, who, as it later turns out, is in reality Abu Abbas, the Palestinian leader and confidant of Arafat. In the cabin Molqi makes his three friends believe the cabin steward has discovered their weapons. He pretends that they can therefore not continue their voyage to Israel but must seize the ship. The three are horrified - this was not what they had planned - but finally they allow Molqi to convince them that they have no alternative. The kidnapping begins. With a volley of shots the terrorists storm the bridge and the restaurant where all the passengers have assembled for lunch. All, that is, except Anne Higgins, the Englishwoman, who spends the days of the kidnapping hidden in the bathroom of her cabin. The passengers are filled with fear and horror, only Leon Klinghoffer, the cripple, does not allow himself to be intimidated and comments on the nightmarish situation with black humour. Meanwhile, the ship' s captain transmits radio messages to inform the world about the seizure of his ship and the pirates' demands. Fifty Palestinians must be freed from Israeli prisons before the terrorists are prepared to surrender the ship. There is hectic activity in Rome, Washington, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Bonn, London and Paris. Aeroplanes are deployed over the Mediterranean to search for the vanished ship, the ambassadors of the countries involved meet in Cairo, radio messages with orders are transmitted back and forth. While the ship is approaching the Syrian coast, American, Israeli and British passengers are separated from the others. Fear continues to grow. When finally the Syrian port of Tartous appears on the horizon, the end of the kidnapping seems to be in sight. The terrorists assure the passengers that everything will soon be over. Hopes for a happy end grow stronger. But suddenly Molqi appears. He forces the American, Israeli and British hostages to leave the hall and go onto the top deck of the ship. The passengers from the USA, Israel and England are huddled together on the top deck, the sides of which slope down without a railing. One false move and they will land in the water... Only Leon Klinghoffer remains on a lower deck, alone in his wheelchair. The terrorists do not suspect that the radio messages Molqi has been exchanging with the Syrian government have been overheard from a plane: the Syrian government will not let the terrorists land and refuses to conduct negotiations on their behalf. The plan seems to have failed. Molqi threatens to kill one of the passengers if his conditions are not fulfilled. Shortly after this Molqi approaches Leon Klinghoffer by himself. He pushes the American round the deck in his wheelchair - and finally kills him. The other terrorists are horrified at the murder. When the hostages are allowed to leave the top deck Klinghoffer's wife goes to look for her husband, but she is told that although he is in the ship' s hospital and well, she is not allowed to see him. The ship sets course for Libya, but here, too, she is sent away again. All the Arab countries have meanwhile dissociated themselves from the kidnapping, the pirates are alone with their terrible crime. Even Arafat, the leader of the Palestinians, wants nothing to do with the kidnappers. He does, however, send his second-in-command to Cairo to negotiate with the terrorists and persuade them to surrender peacefully. This second-in-command is Abu Abbas, the man with whom Molqi is in constant radio contact. Meanwhile it is rumoured among the passengers that Leon Klinghoffer has been murdered. But Molqi still compells the ship's captain to deny that Klinghoffer is dead. Even Abu Abbas, who has ordered Molqi to return to Port Said and is now the official mediator, is told by the captain (acting on Molqi's orders ) that no lives have been lost on the ship. For only if all the passengers remain unharmed are the ambassadors of the countries involved prepared to comply with Abbas's demand that the terrorists be surrendered to the Palestinians, who will then bring charges against them themselves. Besides this, the ambassadors must agree not to extradite the terrorists to any of the countries concerned. Molqi and the other terrorists meanwhile realize that the seizure of the ship has failed and that there is no chance that they will be able to force the Israelis to let the imprisoned Palestinians go free. When Abu Abbas orders them to apologize to the passengers, they obey him. The passengers, too, have now heard that the kidnapping is over. They are relieved and happy, and so far no one knows for sure that Leon Klinghoffer is dead. When a ship belonging to the Egyptian Secret Service comes to pick up the terrorists, they leave the 'Achille Lauro'. The nightmare is over. Only now does Marilyn Klinghoffer learn that her husband has been murdered. In spite of the agreement stipulating that the pirates are not to be extradited, the American ambassador, feeling that he has been misled by Abu Abbas, promises Mrs. Klinghoffer to do everything in his power to have the terrorists tried by an American court. While the passengers are recovering from the strain they have gone through and are being taken home, the American Secret Service listens in on a radio message saying when the pirates are to be flown out of Egypt. A plan is concocted. On 12th Octoberr the Boeing with the pirates and Abu Abbas on board is forced by two American military machines to land on the NATO base in Sicily. In spite of the Americans ' demand that the kidnappers be handed over to them, they are - after lengthy political disputes - surrendered to the Italian authorities, where they are identified by Marilyn Klinghoffer. Abu Abbas remains at large. The kidnappers are tried in Italy and sentenced to between l5 and 30 years imprisonment.