Third arrest in plane hijack case (update)
A third person has been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to hijack a Transavia plane en route for Turkey, the public prosecution department said on Thursday, but declined to give further details.
A 31-year-old man and 28-year-old woman are still in custody after a telephone warning that the plane was going to be hijacked on Tuesday.
But family and friends of the couple from Dordrecht have told reporters that the couple were simply going on holiday and were probably the victims of a hoax call.
‘Fathi would not hurt a fly, this is not like him at all,’ the man’s brother told SBS tv. ‘He booked last minute and was going for 22 days. The rest of the family helped him finance it.’
The AD quotes Mehmed as saying the phone call was made in revenge by a drug addict former friend.
Neighbours told the paper the idea that the couple were terrorists was laughable.
Fathi and his girlfriend Hinda’s house was searched by police on Tuesday night and computers were taken away, brother Mehmed said. The door and a window were forced, Mehmed said. ‘It is a total mess.’
Passengers on the plane, which was kept on the tarmac for five hours, told the AD the couple drew attention to themselves by their behaviour.
The public prosecution department declined to comment on the claims.
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