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73 hostages fly home

13 Afghans face hijacking charges in British court

LONDON: Thirteen Afghans faced hijacking charges in a British court on Monday as 73 of the airline passengers they stand accused of holding hostage headed home.

But Britain cannot draw a veil over the hostage crisis just yet, with another 69 hostages claiming political asylum and detractors loudly accusing the government of turning Britain into a "soft touch" for would-be immigrants.

"We can now confirm that Essex police has charged 13 men, all Afghani nationals, following the hijacking of the Ariana Airlines plane which landed at Stansted airport in the early hours of Monday, the seventh of February," said a spokeswoman for Essex police, the force that handled the crisis.

Six other men arrested in connection with the hijack were released without charge, said the police. All those detained are aged between 18 and 36 and are accused of seizing the plane and its passengers "unlawfully and by the use of force or threat".

One of the plane's pilots says the armed hijackers had threatened to kill the hostages and blow up the plane when it landed in Britain, although all emerged safely in the end.

The Afghan airliner was hijacked during an internal flight eight days ago and flew on to London's Stansted airport, where police slowly talked the hijackers into a peaceful surrender.

The 73 Afghans on their way to the Afghan city of Kandahar represented more than half of all those taken hostage, despite widespread media reports that many of those "trapped" aboard could be in cahoots with the hijackers to gain British asylum.

The chartered aircraft took off from an air force base west of London early on Monday after the former hostages, some smiling and waving, were escorted there by police.

Only hours earlier, British officials said just 17 of the freed hostages had indicated they wanted to return to ultra-Islamic, war-ravaged Afghanistan.

"It took some time to do the interviews to establish people's intentions and explain what their options were and what the implications were," a Home Office (interior ministry) spokeswoman told Reuters.

"All the ones staying behind are not leaving voluntarily. It's my understanding that would mean they are claiming asylum."

Some media reports said the increase in the number going home followed assurances about personal safety from the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban authorities in Kabul.

The spokeswoman said the 73 former hostages going home numbered 58 men, eight women and seven children.

Taliban authorities, who have no diplomatic relations with Britain, have asked for the return of all the former hostages.

But when the four-day hijack ended last Thursday, it quickly emerged that dozens had applied for asylum -- provoking fierce criticism of Britain's centre-left Labour government.

Straw said Britain faced a dilemma between its obligation to provide asylum to those with a well-founded fear of persecution at home, and its duty to "prevent and deter the very serious international terrorist crime of hijacking".

Human rights activists had urged Straw to show leniency for the hostages, who survived a gruelling ordeal and now face the prospect of returning to miserable living conditions back home.-Reuters