Judges stand by hijack ruling

Appeal judges who quashed the convictions of nine Afghan men jailed for hijacking a plane from Kabul to Stansted insisted yesterday that their decision was "not a charter for future hijackers".

Lord Justice Longmore, sitting with Mr Justice Hooper and Mrs Justice Cox in the Court of Appeal in London, said: "The only reason this appeal has succeeded is that there was a misdirection in relation to the law as explained to the jury. We have every confidence that future juries, given a correct direction in accordance with the law, will convict in appropriate cases and acquit if it is right to do so."

He said: "In the light of some of the newspaper comments on the announcement of our decision, we think it right to say we do not for a moment accept the success of this appeal is a charter for future hijackers."

The convictions were quashed as unsafe last month after the judges heard argument that the law relating to whether the nine acted under "duress" because of their professed fear of the brutal Taliban regime had been wrongly applied at their Old Bailey retrial.

The judges yesterday refused the Crown permission to take the case to the House of Lords but certified it raised an issue of law of general public importance on which the Crown could petition the law lords for leave to appeal.

Brothers Ali and Mohammed Safi - who led the hijack and were jailed for five years - were the only men still in jail at the time of the ruling.

Seven others, jailed for between 27 and 30 months, had already served their sentences.

The nine Afghan Muslims were jailed at the Old Bailey in December 2001 for hijacking the plane, false imprisonment, possessing firearms with intent to cause fear of violence and possessing explosives.

The hijack in February 2000 resulted in a three-day stand-off at Stansted airport.