ROME, March 22 -- Italian secret service agents arrested fugitive Palestinian terrorist Youssef Majid al-Molqi in southern Spain Friday after the Achille Lauro hijacker skipped a Rome prison one month ago while on a controversial day-release program. The Italian Interior Ministry said the agents arrested al-Molqi in the street in the small town of Estepona some 12 miles from Marbella on the Costa del Sol where he was living with false documents. 'Everything went like clockwork,' said one of the agents who asked not to be identified. Al-Molqi, who police said did not resist arrest, was captured following a blanket search of the Costa del Sol that gathered pace over the past three days following an intercepted phone call between Al-Molqi and an Italian friend. The U.S. government expressed its satisfaction with the arrest, with the State Department calling the U.S. Embassy in Italy to express the relief of Secretary of State Warren Christopher. 'This is a very positive development,' said State Department spokesman Glyn Davies. 'We will be working with the Spanish and Italian authorities to ensure that this man is handed back to the authorities,' he said. The U.S. government offered a $2 million reward for the capture of the 34-year-old terrorist who was serving a 30-year sentence for his part in the raid on the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985. The escape of Al-Molqi -- a model prisoner who failed to return to Rome's Rebibbia Prison late last month after a 12-day furlough for good behavior -- caused an international outcry over Italy's apparently lax penal system.
He was the third member of the four-man group that hijacked the Lauro in 1985 to make his escape from Italy's lax penal system. Hamad Al Assadi Marouf disappeared after being granted provisional liberty and Bassam Al Ashker vanished after being put into the care of the Red Cross in Genoa. A fourth terrorist, Fataier Abdelatif, is still in prison in Voghera, northwest Italy. The group, members of Abu Abbas' Palestine Liberation Front, hijacked the liner as it cruised in the Mediterranean in October 1985 and killed an elderly wheelchair-bound American Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. They subsequently surrendered to Egyptian authorities in Port Said and were extradited for trial in Italy. Italian officials at the time of the escape said Al Molqi was not due for release until 2012 and it was therefore likely that he decided to skip his provisional liberty. They said he had spent part of his prison break in a hostel in Rome run by a Catholic charitable organization and part visiting friends in the Tuscan town of Prato. Prison officials said Al Molqi had been a model prisoner, working at carpentry and weaving in the Rebibbia craft center.
