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American Morning

Suspected Hijacker Goes to Court in Sweden

Aired September 02, 2002 - 08:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, this hour, a suspected hijacker goes to court today. A 29-year-old Swedish man arrested while trying to board a plane with a gun last week in Sweden.
Donna Muriel now joins us live from that country to bring us more on what's happening on that side of the world -- hello, Diana.

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.

Yes, behind me at the county courthouse in Vasteras, in about two hour's time a hearing will begin where the suspect, who's been named as Kerim Sadok Chatty, a 29-year-old Swedish national of Tunisian origin, who was arrested on Thursday trying to board a Rhine Air flight -- that's a discount airline -- from Vasteras to London's Stansted Airport with a loaded pistol in his hand luggage.

He will hear the formal charges read out to him in the courtroom. There are two charges. The first one is the serious crime of an attempted hijack and sabotage of an aircraft or an airport. That's one count. And the second count is the illegal possession of a firearm.

Now, the defendant's lawyer, Nils Uggla, will argue in the court to the county court judge that his client was not attempting to hijack this aircraft and that on the second count, that of the illegal possession of a firearm, the minimum sentence here in Sweden is six months. And any crime that carries a sentence of six months means that the defendant does not have to be detained in police custody while the investigation continues. And that's what he's going to ask for, his client to be released.

But the chief public prosecutor, Thomas Haeggstroem, will also be here, together with his boss. That's unusual. Gunter Olind (ph), who handles international cases, she will also be here. And they are arguing that the suspect should be detained in police custody. They say that were he to be released, there is a possibility that he might abscond. They're saying that he might destroy evidence. They're saying that he might commit other crimes.

They're saying that they have exceptional reasons to detain him in custody, reasons which they have not yet given to the press. And they're also asking for special permissions to deny him certain access in prison to a telephone and to visitors and to other contact.

We know that he's got access at the moment to television and to newspapers and to radio.

So that is what they've got to try and convince the county court judge here to do today -- Bill.

HEMMER: Diana, over the past 48 hours this story has flip- flopped in terms of public facts and what has thought to have happened and what was believed by investigators. What have you been told by police other than the gun that he tried to carry on board that plane, that he did have intent to hijack that aircraft?

MURIEL: Well, the police are playing things pretty close to their chest, Bill. They say that they are taking things by the book. This is an extremely unusual incident to occur in Sweden. They say that this is a to -- this has got unprecedented media interest. They're not used to dealing with these cases and they're going to take things extremely slowly.

What we see, we know that he was found with this loaded pistol in his hand luggage. We know from the lawyer that he has given an explanation as to why that pistol was there, an explanation which the lawyer believes, at least, and he's passed that explanation on to the police.

Now, we may get some more details as to what that explanation is. He says that his client was not attempting to hijack the plane and that this is not a hijacking incident or a terrorist incident -- Bill.

HEMMER: Diana, thank you.

Diana Muriel watching the story again in Sweden.

More on that a bit later.

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