The European courts have a nasty habit of rewarding American fugitives from justice. Among others, there was child rapist Roman Polanski and now there is George Wright, a convicted murderer, prison escapee, and Black Liberation Army airline hijacker.
Thanks to Dorina Lisson for the heads-up on this story.
PORTUGAL REFUSES TO EXTRADITE U.S. FUGITIVE
By Barry Hatton
The Sydney Morning Herald
November 18, 2011
A Portuguese court has denied a US request for the extradition of a captured American fugitive who spent 41 years on the run in a journey that took him across three continents, and included the brazen 1972 hijacking of a jet from America to Algeria.
George Wright, 68, told reporters he was "very happy, morally and spiritually," with the decision on Thursday.
He claimed his extradition to serve the rest of a sentence for a fatal New Jersey petrol station robbery in 1962 was not justified because it was his accomplices who fired the shots that killed the owner.
Wright's lawyer, Manuel Luis Ferreira, told The Associated Press that the judge accepted his arguments that Wright is now Portuguese and that the statute of limitations on the killing had expired.
He expects American authorities will appeal the decision, but the judge immediately released Wright from house arrest.
During a press conference in his lawyer's office, Wright admitted the plane hijacking, but said he committed it as a militant member of the Black Liberation Army "to fight for black rights... to support the hopes of black people" but is now a changed man.
"I'm not the person I was then," a relaxed Wright said at the news conference, which was attended by his Portuguese wife and their two adult children.
American authorities were seeking his return to serve the rest of his 15- to 30-year jail sentence.
Wright was captured in Portugal in September after a fingerprint provided by US authorities was matched to his in a national database the country maintains for all citizens and legal residents.
US Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said American officials were "extremely disappointed" with the outcome, calling Wright "a convicted murderer guilty of an extremely serious crime which falls squarely within the terms of our bilateral extradition treaty with Portugal."
Sweeney did not say whether an appeal will be filed, but said American authorities "expect Portugal to abide by its treaty obligations in this case".
Wright spent seven years in a US prison for the New Jersey murder before escaping in 1970, and was on the run for 41 years until his arrest.
Authorities say Wright and three associates had already committed multiple armed robberies on November 23, 1962, when Walter Patterson, a decorated World War II veteran and father of two, was shot dead in his petrol station in Wall, New Jersey.
But Wright insisted on Thursday that he never fired a shot in the holdup and pleaded "no defence" to the murder charge because his lawyer said he should do so to avoid a life sentence or the death penalty.
Wright was captured in the seaside village near Lisbon where he has lived since 1993, and was jailed for about two weeks. But a judge released him about a month ago under house arrest.
Ferreira previously told The AP he would argue Wright is now a Portuguese citizen and should be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence in Portugal, where his wife and children live.
Wright got Portuguese citizenship through his 1991 marriage to a Portuguese woman and after the tiny West African nation Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, gave him the new name of "Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos" complete with fake names for parents and made him a citizen.
The identity from Guinea-Bissau was granted after the country gave Wright political asylum in the 1980s - and he insisted on being addressed with it at the news conference.
It was accepted by Portugal when it granted him citizenship, according to his lawyer.
Wright broke out of Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, on Aug. 19, 1970 and made his way to Detroit, where he joined the Black Liberation Army.
Dressed as a priest, he hijacked a Delta flight to Miami with four others, using handguns they sneaked on the plane.
After releasing the plane's 86 passengers for $US1 million, the hijackers forced the plane to fly to Boston, then to Algeria, where the hijackers sought asylum.
Algeria gave the money and plane back to the US, and Wright and his comrades went underground, settling in France.
The other four were captured and convicted of hijacking in Paris, but Wright managed to avoid the dragnet.
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